Changed
by MusicalDefiance
Summary: Five months ago, in the battle of Truth versus Ideals, N proved to be victorious over Touya. Unfortunately, due to N's plans, the land of Unova has fallen into a catastrophic economy crash. To make matters worse, innocent pokemon have been being eradicated by Ghetsis by horrific means. Can N and his new friend stop him, or will the bond of humans and pokemon be forever tattered?
1. Chapter 1

_I want to make everything I've done reverse itself. The world obviously was not ready, or prepared for this._

_I shouldn't have tampered with the delicate balance that was the bond of pokémon and humans, but it seems like it's too late._

_I shouldn't have done it._

_I shouldn't have changed everything._

* * *

><p><span>Introduction<span>

My hands dug into my hat, pulling at my mangled unkempt tresses as I viewed the vile human being sitting before me, feeling the intense heat on my face as my anger boiled out of control. "This is not what I wanted at all." I steamed viciously, giving him a dagger filled glare that seemed to have no effect on him at all. "Why the hell are you doing this!"

He chuckled, like he was trying to sound sympathetic, but underneath it all you could hear the cruel evil laugh he intended for, making the tone sound devilish. "Why my dear king," He said patiently, a wide grin stretched across his face. "I did nothing bad. This is your world. Humans are finally separated from pokémon, no more harm will ever come to them, you have won, shouldn't you be pleased?" he asked, delightedly.

"You-you bastard!" I spat venomously, shading my eyes from his sight, no longer able to stand that blood red cyborg eye staring me down. I slightly wondered if he wanted to know where I had learned my foul tongue. "I know you were the one who caused this mess. You know very well I said from the beginning I simply wanted pokémon and humans to be separated, so they would be equal and become separate beings, but somehow, you took that as there being no pokémon here at all! This region has become blank and desolate; this is not at all what I wanted to happen! You've been killing them all, I want it to stop now!" I commanded, outraged, my hands balling into tight fists as if I would strike him, even though I knew I wouldn't. He was far too strong for me to do anything.

He shook his head and sighed, giving me a light shrug. Did he think I was a fool? He was acting as though I was just a small idiotic child who couldn't pick right from wrong. "My Lord, this is a dream world for us all. All pokémon that had belonged to trainers prior to your battle were rid of for good reason, they were plagued with the thought of humans being wonderful beings. We can not have a perfect world with such thoughts in mind, so we did what was best. Pokémon and humans are to finally break their bonds with one another," he stood from the throne, my throne, and stretched his hands out to his sides triumphantly. "This is what Plasma was built on!" he shouted.

I cursed under my breath at his joy, how could one be so happy knowing he was behind the murders of thousands of pokémon? He was trying to make it sound like it was such a wonderful thing that pokémon were being killed simply because they used to belong to trainers. Yes, the whole point of my plan may have been to separate humans and pokémon from each other, perhaps even permanently sever the bonds between them, but this wasn't at all what I wanted.

Just because a pokémon once belonged to a trainer, doesn't mean its mind is forever poisoned.

"How dare you even suggest the idea of killing off pokémon was what Team Plasma was built on. Pokémon are gentle beings meant to be respected and loved, yet you've been destroying that thought and simply ridding of the prior issue in a way that I most certainly did not approve of. All along you've been ruling behind my back when I am the one who is the rightful king, and you've defied me as a father and sage." I seethed, turning away from him, my hatred towards him only growing stronger every minute. "I wish I had never agreed to work with you. All you've managed to do is cause pokémon more pain, and this I will not forgive." Saying this I clutched Zekrom's pokéball tightly in my left hand, I highly doubt he even knew I still had my pokémon. Even I was surprised that I did honestly. Zekrom probably would have been much happier free, able to fly freely in the air with nothing holding him back, but something in me would not allow me to release him. "I don't know how, but I will stop you from doing this, even if it means leaving my kingdom, and even my prior ideals behind."

I began to saunter off towards the exit of the gigantic throne room, the distance feeling like miles as my father's curious eyes burned holes into the back of my head. I was more than done with his ramblings and lies. Perhaps Alder and that Cheren kid had been right from the start, Ghetsis was doing something awful behind my back the entire time, keeping me in the dark from his evil doings.

"N," he began slowly, that evil smirk he had earlier oozing into his words as he spoke. "You know you are forbidden to leave this castle. It is your duty as our king to stay here and keep control of your followers." He taunted.

I scoffed, still refusing to give him the satisfaction of my gaze. "They aren't children. I'm fairly sure they can hold their ground and follow their orders without me babysitting them constantly." I retorted. Of course, in the back of my mind I knew that the majority of Team Plasma's grunts were complete idiotic fools that wouldn't be able to wipe their own dripping noses without my help, but I didn't really care. Plasma was corrupted, I really had no interest in whatever they did anymore.

Making my way to the large mahogany door that rested at the end of the long walkway, I heard Ghetsis move from his seat and walk towards me. I cursed under my breath and turned to meet his piercing gaze, awaiting his words to attempt to stab me like daggers. The sound of rushing water below us was the only thing that soothed me enough to not make a run for it.

"You realize that if you leave," he said, still moving towards me with a devilish smile on his face, "I will not hesitate to send the Shadow Triad after you. You know as well as I do that I can give you as much of a running start as you'd like, but I promise that once they capture you, which we both know is imminent, and you return, punishment will be unimaginably severe." He added, clenching his outstretched hands into fists. "You should be asking if that's really at all worth it."

I glared at him icily, refusing to let him intimidate me. I gritted my teeth so hard I felt my jaw would snap. "I'll take that as a challenge then." I hissed boldly.

Ghetsis began to laugh, one of those unbelievably loud belly laughs that shakes the whole room and pools the drink in your wine glass. I covered my ears, the sound being worse because of how large and acoustic the room was. I cringed at the tone of his laughter, sounding cruel and devilish; it was a sound I remembered from my childhood, which now seemed more and more horrible to me.

He recomposed himself quickly and I removed my hands from my ears, waiting for his next remark. "You have one day to escape." He offered, saying it as if we were playing some sick game. "As soon as the sun sets tomorrow evening, the Shadow Triad will be sent to condemn you. I'd wish you luck but, you don't really have any." He chuckled to himself, not even bothering to fool with me anymore it seemed, and swiftly turned to walk back to sit his mightiness back on the throne that was rightfully mine, obviously wishing it belonged to him, but treating it as if it already did.

I immediately bolted out the door, not even bothering to shut it as I exited the room. I was shooting by grunts of all sorts and ranks and very occasionally one of the sages, all of them giving me confused or concerned looks or shouting my name and trying to stop me. I didn't exactly care where I was going, as long as I got out of that damned castle and away from those people I despised now with my entire being, especially Ghetsis, how I hated Ghetsis. Something had gone wrong. I may have won the battle I challenged with my said "hero of truth" many months ago, but everything I wanted to happen did not. Not only had my plans been changed, but the world had been changed, and not for the better.

* * *

><p><span>Chapter One<span>

The outside air was chilly with the newly developed fall temperatures of mid-October falling across the region. I actually hadn't been outside the castle since close to the end of spring, so it was kind of a shock to see the season so drastically changed. The chill didn't really bother me at all considering I had double layers on, my black under armor shirt and white collar shirt over it, but I knew it would surely get colder as time went on. There wasn't much time for me to stop and ponder the idea of the changing seasons though. I quickly ran as far away from the towering castle as I could, my breathing slowly becoming ragged and exhausted as my lungs tried to adjust in the cold air, but failing, which made my throat sting. Fortunately for me, there was a lot of barren rock right outside of the castle walls, giving me the perfect clearing to make my getaway.

As soon as I was far away enough from the castle to be satisfied with my amount of space, I grabbed the pokéball I had been clutching onto earlier inside my pocket and pulled it out, admiring the red and white colors which gleamed in the evening sun. It had been a long time since I had held one for such an intentional use, rather than to just gaze at it or try to bring myself to release whatever pokémon lied inside, which I could never bring myself to do.

"Zekrom, come on out!" I shouted, tossing the pokéball towards the hard rocky ground. The ball clicked and the hinges sprung open on contact, creating a blinding flash of red light to form outside of it. Zekrom's giant red silhouette formed before me, and as soon as its more detailed features began to come into view, the red light shattered away and Zekrom let out a fierce roar, stretching out its arms and wings. I smiled ecstatically, more than pleased to see my legendary friend before me again after such a long period of time. I was almost furious with myself for keeping Zekrom in his pokéball for such a long time, a pokémon as grand as he deserved much better treatment, especially after all the work he had done for me in my legendary battle, but I didn't really want my followers accusing me of being a hypocrite. Plus, it wouldn't be very easy to let a humongous legendary dragon pokémon wander around the castle when even the height of the throne room was barely enough to fit all of Zekrom.

_N, it's been quite a long time since I've seen you. _The giant pokémon said to me telepathically. I smiled, glad to finally be able to hear the voice of a pokémon again. Being able to understand pokémon was a gift I had managed to successfully develop over the years. It was probably because I had grown up with pokémon practically all of my life, so over time it became easier and easier to understand what they were trying so desperately to say, and it overjoyed me. That joy eventually became bittersweet though, when Ghetsis began introducing me to injured and abused pokémon. Maybe that's where I gained my hatred for the human species. The things those poor pokémon would say to me ate at my heart, making me despise those who would dare even think to harm an innocent pokémon. I guess that's where all of my ideals started.

"Indeed it has been." I answered back happily, my grin still plastered to my face. "I've missed seeing you a lot and I'm very sorry for having kept you imprisoned for such a long time my friend, but I had a lot of issues come up. I hate to bother you now when you've just gotten to stretching yourself out, but I really need your help." I pleaded, folding my hands together almost pathetically in a sort of begging motion.

Zekrom stared at me bewildered, confused by my plea. _Is there something wrong?_

I stared at Zekrom helplessly, knowing in my heart it would only be a matter of time before someone outside the castle noticed the large pokémon from afar and came after me. To please him though, I quickly began explaining, "Ghetsis has done something terribly wrong to this region, and I need to see what I can do to fix it. In doing so, we need to leave as fast as possible because he's threatened to recapture me and throw me back in that hell hole." I said, pointing towards the castle. "I don't really have any desire to go back there and take whatever Ghetsis is planning to punish me with."

Zekrom nodded its head once, completely understanding the situation now, and lowered his body as a motion for me to climb on his back. _As you wish then. _he complied. Swiftly I jumped onto Zekrom's back and climbed my way up to the base of his neck, grabbing on tightly to the jet black scales that covered his body. Zekrom then roared ferociously and stretched his wings out, pushing them down towards the ground, in turn picking up the calm fall breeze and allowing us to slowly hover away from the ground. As soon as we were high up enough, Zekrom pushed his wings back in the air and shot forward at a reasonable speed, the two of us now flying away from the castle. Silently, I breathed in the fresh air, easily preferring it to the stuffy warm air that filled the castle, and reminded myself of the last time I ever got to experience this. Merely a few days before that final decision making battle.

Honestly it was sad, thinking this as Zekrom glided through the air in an unknown direction. After I won that battle that proved my ideals and gained Team Plasma's control over the region, I was still unwillingly confined to Team Plasma's castle, not even able to explore and see the progress over the region I supposedly ruled over. It was almost as if Ghetsis wanted me to stay there for a specific purpose, perhaps trying to hide his rightful intentions from me. Even so, I had no idea what was going on in Unova until recently when I managed to get Concordia to bring me a newspaper. She was very unwilling and insisted that I worry about other things, but after much persuading I was given the newspaper, which adorned a headline I was less than happy to read.

'Region Dead: Pokémon Gone Forever', the headline read, the story with it being no more pleasing to read.

_Five months ago the now dishonored trainer, Touya White, had lost in the excruciatingly important battle between our fair ruler, N Harmonia. Ever since then, pokémon were of course banned from use by trainers in the region, and trainers were inevitably forced to give up their lifestyle. From that day, we were to believe that even though we were to give up our pokémon to Team Plasma, they were simply going to be released safely and would forever live in peace. Unfortunately, reporters keeping up with Team Plasma's motives gathered information about our beloved pokémons' situations. Rather than being released peacefully, it has been proven to us that behind the scenes, Team Plasma has been horrifically eradicating pokémon in a number of ways. Not all ways of murder are known of to the press, but any that are will not be disclosed to the public eye due to the graphic nature of them…_

That was as far as I got in the story before I burst into a fit of rage, crumpled up the paper, and threw it against the wall. The paper had been released about a week ago, and I must admit I was impressed at the press' ability at obtaining information that I'm sure was meant to be well kept secret, but I was nonetheless enraged. At first I thought the paper was simply telling lies and attempting to tarnish Team Plasma's reputation, but whenever I asked Concordia or Anthea about the speculation, all they could do was nod their head slowly and asked to be dismissed. This was what led me to confront Ghetsis, but there also seemed to be much more at stake with the now decaying land of Unova.

After uncrumpling the newspaper a while later to read more on what was going on in the region, it seemed that ever since I had won the battle, it had been a bad turn for the Unova region. Unknown to me, the economy had already hit rock bottom after Plasma's new laws were set into place, and hundreds of jobs were terminated, leaving possibly hundred thousands of people unemployed, all because pokémon could no longer be a part of peoples' daily lives. Pokéballs were now considered completely illegal, manufacturing of them had shut down entirely, and anyone caught possessing a pokéball or confining a pokémon in any way would be placed in prison under Team Plasma's order, immediately. Life in Unova had become exceedingly difficult for anyone holding jobs in which pokémon were essential, and especially for young ones aspiring to be trainers. The region was dying quickly, in hope and spirit.

At that point, all I could hope was that most people shrugged off the newspaper article as if it was nothing, despite how true it was. I was nearly certain that the paper had likely run many stories in the past that were far less than true, but there was always the chance that everyone believed it. Unfortunately, I from this point on would have to assume that everyone did and avoid practically any person in the region, which was going to be hard.

I sighed as Zekrom twisted and turned in the sky, flying wherever it felt would be best. The sun was already beginning to set, which was almost nerve wracking considering tomorrow would be my only day to get away from the disgusting man I called my father. My long tea green hair batted roughly against my face as the wind beat against my body, along with the speed of Zekrom's flying. It almost made me wonder why on Earth I would have even considered allowing my hair to grow out this long, but it was unique and my own, so I wouldn't be changing it.

"I wonder if I've done the right thing." I said thoughtfully, speaking mostly to myself as I played with the Menger Sponge chained to my belt loop. I'd had it forever, and as a child I used to keep it on a chain around my neck and would always refuse to take it off. Now as a traveling teenager, it was simply much easier and less of a hassle to keep it on my belt loop, but I always grabbed it self consciously whenever I walked to make sure it was still there.

_What do you mean? _Zekrom replied, still keeping his course straight.

"I almost wonder if I've done something wrong." I answered sadly, my eyes fixated on how my Menger Sponge shined in the dimming sunlight, "Perhaps maybe they were all right. What if I've destroyed a bond that should have never been touched? Arceus, what if I've ruined the world." I added, clenching my teeth in fear.

Zekrom growled at my discomforting inquiry. _Unova is the only region to have felt your touch, I can sense it, so you needn't worry about that. _Zekrom assured, making me feel a bit better. _But if you've done right or wrong, that I cannot answer._

I shook my head, "I suppose there's only one way to find out." Saying this I looked down and pointed to a clearing I spotted in the forest below us, a forest that was luckily a short walking distance from the well known Opelucid city, but I only knew this because I could see the green roof of the gate ahead. "Let's go ahead and stop here, and maybe later we'll find our way in another direction. I want to see if I can find any supplies here first, unfortunately I didn't have time to pack anything."

Zekrom gave a quick nod and began his decent towards the clearing I had pointed to. It almost disturbed me to see that not even one single pokémon was to be found scurrying through the trees filled with discolored fall leaves. As we landed, Zekrom made a loud thud on impact due to his massive size, and the leaves on the tress surrounding us rattled a bit. I slid down Zekrom's back, careful not to accidentally scuff one of his glinting black scales with my tennis shoes, and stood back to admire the forest around us as I reached in my pocket for his pokéball.

"Thank you for the flight ,Zekrom. Please return and get a little rest." I ordered patiently, opening the pokéball which quickly sent out a bolt of red light. It soon engulfed Zekrom in one swift motion and retracted the beam immediately back into the pokéball. I pressed the button in the middle, shrinking it back down to its original miniscule size, and after placing it back in my pocket, I began to make my way towards the thick of the forest. The leaves of the trees were painted different assortments of orange, red, and yellow, giving the surrounding earth an orangey warm glow. I would've considered staying and pleasuring the view if I hadn't been under so much stress.

The place was eerily void of any noise, no chirping from nearby pokémon, and no rustling from trees or bushes. It was far different from how I remembered traveling through here in the past, almost frightening. I almost felt like making some bird calls I knew by heart, just to see if anything would happen, but I sadly knew it would likely do nothing but attract unwanted attention towards me, I was too close to the city to make any noise.

The thickness of the forest began to thin out slightly as I came closer to the town's gate, which to my surprise was void of any life. It was odd, seeing no one standing nearby the gate, but maybe it was because I was so unused to not seeing trainers everywhere traveling on their own insignificant journeys. It made me wonder why I was so bothered by this, wasn't it what I wanted?

Upon entering the gate, there again was still no life to be found, not even the route guide I'd usually see as I walked through these gates. It was as if they just decided to leave because no one ever came through there anymore, which I guess I could believe considering the path I was walking along was the path to the Pokémon League, or more commonly known now as Team Plasma's castle. Come to think of it, I hadn't seen any trainers walking along any of the routes we had flown over. Of course not though, what would be the point of being a trainer in Unova now, it was completely illegal. I almost felt stupid for making such a law now, considering I myself was a trainer and couldn't bring myself to release my own pokémon. I really was a hypocrite.

The light coming through the entrance to Opelucid was dimmer than would be expected for the type of town it was, at least on the eastern side where I was. The interesting thing about Opelucid was that the right side of it was futuristic and glamorous, always expanding and growing in new ways, while the left side was old and rustic, the people who lived there deciding to keep the old ways of their town and refusing to change. Considering I was on the eastern side, I'd figure the light would be blinding me like it had when I first entered Opelucid, but it was dimmed. I was completely baffled as I stepped through the entrance of the city to see that the place was dark and barren looking. There weren't nearly as many people there as I had remembered, only a few elderly couples and a few young adults, walking around aimlessly with sadness and remorse scorned on their faces. A city that had once been so full of life looked as though it had never been alive.

Unsurprisingly, as I walked through the lifeless city, I saw the Pokémon Center, which was abandoned, the lights off and the doors locked, a 'Closed Forever' sign taped to the once sliding glass door. It almost made me thankful that I had been smart enough to save as many healing items as I possibly could for my pokémon. Then again it probably helped a lot that the grunts had tons of items with them that they had planned to simply throw away after releasing their pokémon, but as king of Team Plasma, I convinced them to hand them all off to me, and I stored them where neither Ghetsis or the Shadow Triad would find them. Of course, it probably would have been a smart idea to actually grab some of these saved items and bring them along with me, but I acted out of anger and no idea had surfaced in my mind to prepare myself for a journey away from the castle. I made a note to myself to try and not take out my pokémon as much as possible, despite how much I should.  
>I felt a tug at my heart viewing the decrepit center before me, almost wishing I knew how angry this image had made people. I almost wondered if Ghetsis was true to his word that everyone had released their pokémon willingly, or if they had done it by force. Ghetsis wouldn't allow trainers to release them on their own, he told me that he instead took the pokeballs so the trainers would not have to deal with the emotional depart, but I knew better now. It almost made me angry that no one had even bothered to try and stop this from happening even after the battle between me and Unova's other hero. Was he the only one who actually cared?<p>

Suddenly I heard rushed footsteps moving in my direction, frightening me a little, thinking that maybe somebody had recognized me and decided to come after me in a fit of rage. It wasn't my fault that innocent pokémon were dying, but one is to almost always blame the figure head. Quickly I raised my hands in a surrendering motion, as if to keep the attacker at bay, and turned towards whoever was running towards me. Fortunately for me, they weren't coming after me at all, but the image before me certainly took me by surprise. Before me was a girl, her medium bangs managing to hide her eyes from view, and she was sweating profusely, suggesting she had been running for quite a long time. She seemed considerably frightened, as though she was running from something or someone, or perhaps she was in trouble.

My eyes wandered to her arms where something was tightly clutched against her chest as she moved in an unknown direction past me. It may have just been my eyes deceiving me, but I swore I saw it moving, maybe even breathing? "_Does she have a pokémon!" _I thought urgently, feeling my eyes widen.

She had long run past me, but I immediately bolted after her, never having run that fast before in my life. I didn't quite know why I was so suddenly drawn to chasing after her, but I had to know what her intentions were, and most importantly, what she had with her. She must have realized I was following her because she broke into a hefty sprint in an attempt to escape me pursuing her. This of course only made me run faster; I refused to let her escape my view. I chased her out of the city, back into the forest I had started in a few minutes prior, and it showed she really wanted to lose me, dodging through trees and shrubs in a great attempt to get me off her trail. Luckily for me, I didn't have to worry about accidentally pummeling a pokémon in my haste to catch her, so I didn't pay any heed to shooting through bushes and accidentally crashing into trees. Eventually I caught up to her even though she kept running, and in one last try, I lunged my body towards hers with my outstretched arm.

And I caught her by the collar of her shirt.

She screamed, horrified, and struggled to get away from me, twisting and turning in every direction and trying to kick me from behind.

"Let go of me you jerk, I already told you to get lost! I don't have any money to give you, so why don't you just leave me alone!" she screamed, continuing to yell out nearly every swear word known to man as she struggled to escape from my grip.

I turned her towards me, moving my hand swiftly to hold onto her arms rather than her shirt and tightening my grip, and stared down at what she had with her. Shockingly, in her arms to my surprise was a small Cubchoo, covered up with a folded light blue sheet, and injured severely. Its tiny body was quivering as the cuts on it bled, and its teeth were chattering from the fall cold, which was unnatural for an ice pokémon; the poor thing was in bad shape. I couldn't believe that after everything the news had said, there was still a pokémon in this girl's arms. It almost made me want to cheer.

She stared at my hands angrily, still trying to escape from the tight grip I had on her. "See, it's just a pokémon! I don't have anything to give you, let me go!"

I had no clue why she thought I was some robber, but I immediately let go of her, expecting her to run away, but instead she sat down on her knees and quickly removed her pink book bag, reaching into it and rummaging around for a moment. A second or two later, her hand emerged with a green full restore, and she shifted the small pokémon in her arms to allow her better access to it.

"Sorry little guy, this might sting a bit, but you'll be fine in a second." She said reassuringly. She then sprayed the Cubchoo with the full restore wherever it had cuts on its body. At first it cringed and hissed as the medicine made contact with its skin, but just as quickly the pokémon's expression relaxed and looked relieved. The bleeding cuts immediately began to scab as the contents of the bottle seeped into them, and they already seemed to heal. It looked like the little guy had regained its strength in no time.

The girl laughed cheerfully as she viewed the pokémon regaining its composure, relief washing through her voice, I couldn't help but smile myself. Happily, we got to witness the Cubchoo scurry out of her arms and run off into the forest to mind its own business, but not before making its little noises to thank her.

Not even a second later, the girl was giving me an angry yet confused stare from below. "Why the hell are you still here? I'm pretty sure I told you to get lost." She said, standing up off of the ground.

"You know, you really have no reason to use such foul language, I have no intentions to hurt you." I assured.

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "Whatever."

Now that she was standing up, I got to take notice of her features, and I realized she was actually a fairly beautiful young girl, seemingly close to my age. She was somewhat short, but not too short, likely reaching somewhere between 5'6 and 5'7. Her hair was long, almost reaching her middle back, and the color was a chocolaty brown, done up with a ponytail and covered by a white and pink trainer hat. Her skin was lightly tanned from being outside, which was a usual thing with trainers, and her apparel consisted of blue jean shorts that seemed a little shorter than most women would approve of, a white tank top that showed a little cleavage, and a black vest barely covering the sides of the tank. Covering her wrists were black wristbands with a pink stripe in the middle, and a small golden locket was around her neck. To finish her off, her eyes were a peaceful cerulean color that reminded me of the ocean.

She seemed to be taking me in as well, and our eyes managed to meet at the same time. Part of me expected her to blush like many girls I had made eye contact with in the past, and I really had no idea why they did that, but surprisingly, I witnessed something far different. Suddenly, her eyes widened and just as quickly went dark, almost seeming like blue flames were erupting behind her pupils. I was taken aback by her sudden fury filled stare, unable to understand why she was glaring at me in such a manner.

"What do you think you're doing here!" she yelled, the flames in her eyes crackling.

I blinked, "Um, excuse me…?"

Her rage exploded. "How dare you even think of coming down here, why don't you just leave us the hell alone, you've done enough already!" she screamed, eyes tearing up.

I didn't know what to say.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I hope you enjoyed reading this. I had to rewrite it from how I had it prior, because the plot didn't make as much sense as it could have. Also, I turned my crappy was to be OC into a certain someone I'm sure you can figure out. From here on, I have much planned for this story, and will hopefully be able to update often. Thanks so much again, review if you'd like!**

**Haha I'm so cool, uploading my revision literally a few hours after I posted the notice. X3**


	2. Chapter 2

_You've made my life a living hell, what do you have to say for yourself?_

_I wish you didn't come and mess everything up._

_Life would have been so much better without you bothering us..._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 2<span>

Tears were still welling up in my eyes as I glared angrily at the boy in front of me, the boy who had made my life so difficult, the boy who had slowly begun destroying Unova.

The boy who ruined my brother's life.

Yes, standing before me happened to be the one and only great N Harmonia, king and savior of pokémon to our land and the world, or at least that's what he desired for us to believe.

I couldn't help but feel disgust as I looked up at him, appearing to be humble and trying to somehow make conversation with me, but now his face was full of confusion and, well, a bit of curiosity. What was I, a science project? I growled a little bit, as if trying to intimidate him, but it simply made him raise an eyebrow.

"That outburst seemed a little unnecessary," he said. "I don't exactly understand why you're growling at me, are you trying to be a pokémon?"

I groaned in frustration, "You didn't answer me, what the hell are you doing here? Why can't you just stay in your damn castle and leave us alone?"

His eyes lit up a little in realization and nodded, supposedly understanding why I was so angry. I rolled my eyes as he spoke, "I see now, you're angry because of who I am. It's understandable I suppose, but really, is there any reason to be so harsh, I haven't done anything to you."

That statement nearly made me want to laugh, just because of how wrong it was. He had no idea what he had done to my life, or how badly he had hurt me and my family. I shook my head, "You have no idea what you've done to me, and you don't need to know, so why don't you just go back home? Unova's doing just fine without you checking up on us. Your troopers do that enough."

He nodded, "I realize you may be in pain but I honestly have no reason to harm you or anyone else here. I haven't come to worsen anything. Perhaps we should actually converse like normal people. May I ask for your name?"

I scoffed at that, just hearing him say normal, nothing about N was normal. I knew that from the first day I met him. "I don't give my name out to people I don't trust." I answered boldly. "You might send your goonies on me for having a pokémon." _I don't really think I need to anyways, _I thought silently. _Don't you remember who I am?_

N shook his head, "I would never send someone after you for saving an injured pokémon, I would do it myself if I had the means to do so."

"That's a lie! I've heard about what you all have done to our pokémon! You don't care about pokémon, you've been lying from the beginning! You don't care at all!" I screamed, feeling the tears roll down my face at an increasing rate. All I could think of was my poor pokémon I had to give up. My whole team, murdered by Plasma, even my Surperior whom I loved to no end. They were all gone because of them, all gone because of N.

It had been a while since I had actually seen N, but the first time I remember was that one occurrence in Accumula alongside my brother and our friend. He said he could talk to pokémon, which honestly sounded really bogus, but for some reason he seemed really attached to my brother's pokémon. He didn't tell us a whole lot at the time, but all I recall is him being thoroughly creepy, and our friend Cheren didn't like him at all. Our first encounter of course wasn't much, but I saw him now and again afterwards.

But now after five months or so, he was once again standing before me, his eyes curious and almost pathetic, like he was a small puppy in trouble. I was actually a little confused, we'd met many times before, yet he seemed to not even recognize me? He was stupider than I thought, but it could be used to my advantage nonetheless. It was probably better for the king of an organization I wanted to destroy to not know who I was. Really it was best that no one knew who I was…

N seemed shocked, not knowing what to do for my sudden break in emotion, but he tried to remain calm and simply asked, "Where did you find that pokémon?"

I choked, "What's it matter to you? You want them all dead anyways, I'm surprised you didn't stop me from healing it. You're a monster!"

N sighed and placed his head in one of his hands, shaking his head with a nearly distressed look on his face. "Wow, I can't even grasp how much pain I've put people in, but I see some of it now." He groaned and clutched one of his fists in front of him. "Damn you, Ghetsis, damn you. You're the reason Plasma's name is tarnished." He said to the air.

I sniffled and wiped a couple of tears away, "What does Ghetsis have to do with this?" I asked, knowing of the Great Sage from my brother, "It was your idea wasn't it? That's what all the papers say." I said, remembering the story in the paper. It was a huge deal about a week ago, and the words were still settling harsh on the past trainers of Unova, including me. Many people chose not to believe in it, but I knew how terrible Team Plasma could be.

He looked towards me, almost seeming to be offended, "Never in my life would I even dream to harm an innocent pokémon."

"Then where did the whole concept of having a perfect world stem? All it seems to be is harming pokémon. I can promise you there was nothing but pain on my pokémons' faces the day before I had to hand them off to your officers. Is that your idea of a perfect world, your majesty?" I crooned.

He shook his head, "The concept of the perfect world was for pokémon and humans to be separated, to become separate and equal beings. Pokémon would no longer have to be slaves to humans who wish to use their abilities merely to fight battles for them. Unfortunately, it seems my father, Ghetsis, had other plans. He never let me go out and speak the words I so desperately wanted to reach to the trainers, never let me see a glimpse of the world that I've now learned is slowly decaying, and never let me know the truth of what Team Plasma was doing. I see now that all I became was a figure head, put out to take the blame for his current wrong doings." He hung his head low, "I understand if you're in pain, I can't apologize enough, but I promise you, I'm currently on a mission to see what I can do to stop it."

"I won't forgive you that easily." I shot back without thinking.

N nodded, "I understand." He then began to walk on past me. "I suppose I'll leave you to your business then. Regardless of how you felt, it was still a pleasure meeting you, goodbye."

I watched him for a moment, almost feeling as though I wanted to stop him. He seemed pathetic, much less proud than I once remembered him appearing. I couldn't help feeling sad for him, because maybe he was being honest, maybe he had decided he needed to fix what he did wrong. I knew deep down that he was right, he would never have even dreamed of harming a pokémon, he made sure to make me aware of that any time I ever ran into him, but what was he trying to do now?

Absentmindedly I clutched my locket, inside containing a picture of my brother and I. All I could think then was what would he do in this situation?

_If you're going to do something, now's your only chance, Touko._ I thought.

"N, wait!" I yelled, jogging after him. Immediately he turned around, once again giving me that damn confused look of his.

"Yes, can I help you?" he asked.

As I caught up to him, I breathed in heavily as I said, "You never really answered me before, what are you trying to do?"

N's facial expression turned stern, "I want to stop Team Plasma."

I nodded, "The two of us have something in common then."

"Do we now?" he asked, his interest obviously piqued.

I nodded, "I want to stop Team Plasma too. They took my pokémon from me, my best friends, and I haven't been able to get out of Opelucid ever since they started monitoring the routes." I replied. "I can help you."

N's face immediately started to brighten, very much like I had seen in the past, and a small smile stretched across his lips. "If you could do that, I would be so appreciative; I can't very easily do this on my own."

"Well how about we go negotiate a partnership?" I suggested, grabbing his arm. On instinct he flinched and immediately pulled away. I stared at him for a second, but I shrugged it off and just motioned towards the path back to the city. "Come on, let's go back to my place so we can talk in private. I don't trust anything out here."

* * *

><p>"What do you think they meant when they said liberation?" I asked Cheren as the group giving the speech in town began to pack up their flags and posts. They seemed to have some strange ideas and values, and a strange sense of fashion. Other than that though, they for some reason wanted people to give up their pokémon, which I knew deep down I would never do. I couldn't possibly give up my new friends, we just started our journey.<p>

Cheren pushed up his glasses and shook his head, "I don't know, they look like a cult or something, but I can't grasp the reason that they want people to release their pokémon. Arceus knows I'd never release mine."

"What about you, Touya?" I asked, looking up expectantly at my older brother.

Touya scratched his head underneath his hat and gave a confused look. "They seem kind of stupid to me. Pokémon aren't happy with humans, what kind of crap is that? I'm pretty sure if our pokémon didn't want to be with us, they would let us know."

I blinked and stared at my newly obtained pokéball that I had plucked from the side pocket of my book bag, picturing the young Snivy resting inside. I had just gotten him earlier that morning, and he already seemed to have taken a liking to me. Cheren, Bianca, and I had all gotten our pokémon today, while my brother Touya had gotten his Snivy a year ago. Touya could have officially gone on his pokémon journey last year, but he decided to stay close to Nuvema and wait until the next year, so the two of us could go together. I wanted to get a Snivy, just like he did when he was starting out as a trainer, and he was pretty happy to see me do so. The two of us had always been relatively close.

The people that were watching the speech along with us began to thin out a bit as the officers around the large man speaking began to surround him like he was a president and filed out. Many of the spectators left with either angry, or somewhat distressed expressions, some were even snickering because of how ridiculous the group's uniforms were. It seemed they had really left their mark, but the three of us were unfazed, and we immediately began to plot out our next move.

Touya took out his map that mom had given him and opened it so we could all see it, "Okay, so there's not really much for you guys to do here besides sightsee, so how's about we start heading to the next town? We still have a lot of daylight left, so we can head through the next route, possibly start getting you guys a decently built team, and we can have your first gym badges by this evening."

Cheren smiled ecstatically, "That sounds great to me, how about you, Touko?"

I nodded, "Sounds like a plan, let's get going."

Touya smiled proudly, closing up his map and placing it back into his knapsack. He nodded his head once in the direction of the town gate, and we started heading over towards that way. We maybe only walked a few steps in that direction before coming across some strange kid seemingly close to our ages leaning up against one of the buildings nearby. We didn't really pay him much mind and were going to walk right past him without a second thought, but suddenly he stepped in front of the three of us.

Touya raised an eyebrow, self consciously clutching the pocket he kept his pokéballs in. "Um, can I help you?"

The kid in front of us looked stern and in thought, his eyes being shaded by the white and black trainer hat he wore on his head. His hair was tea green and pulled back into a ponytail that was longer than my own hair, and his apparel was pretty casual, just some khakis and a white collar shirt covering a black under armor shirt. He did have some weird bracelets though, and a strange necklace that looked like some kind of planet.

"Your pokémon…" he began quietly. "Just now, it was saying…"

"Saying what? You can hear my pokémon?" Touya said skeptically.

"Yes, they're talking. Oh. Then, you three can't hear it, either... How sad. My name is N." he said, gesturing a hand towards us.

Touya ignored his offer for a handshake and instead chose to look at him with a weirded out expression, but still responded. "Alright then, um, I'm Touya, this is Cheren, and that's my little sister Touko." He said pointing to the two of us. "It was nice meeting you, but we have to get back on the road, these two have to get a start on filling up their Pokédex."

N lifted his head to eye the three of us better. His gaze freaked me out a little and I hid behind Touya to escape it. "The Pokédex, eh? So... You're going to confine many, many pokémon in pokéballs for that, then. I'm a trainer too, but I can't help wondering... Are pokémon really happy that way?" he asked, outstretching his arms.

"Slow down, you talk way too fast. Besides, who are you to say if pokémon are happy with us or not? Let them speak for themselves and leave us alone, freak!" Cheren yelled angrily. N looked unfazed.

"Cheren, stay out of this, there's no reason to be rude." Touya scolded. Cheren groaned and crossed his arms as Touya returned his attention towards N. "Looks like you share the ideas of that weird gang giving that speech earlier, but I can tell you honestly that I would never hold a pokémon against its will." Touya said, putting a hand to his heart. "My pokémon seem to be pretty happy with me, they've been with me for over a year now, and they've never seemed to have wanted to leave before. It's not really confining them; it's creating a bond with them."

"Well, Touya, is it? Let me hear your Pokémon's voice again!" He shouted, immediately throwing out a pokémon. Quickly I grabbed my Pokédex out of my pocket to get a description of it. It was a Purrloin, a decently low leveled one at that, but it didn't look very happy. It was obviously very protective of its trainer.

Touya grunted a little bit, quickly reaching into his pocket and grabbing one of his pokéballs. "If you want to play that way, I'll show you how hard I play, come on out, Snivy!" he yelled, tossing his pokéball. The ball hit the ground and suddenly opened from its hinges. A burst of red light bolted from it, and out came my brother's beloved Snivy, which I knew had to be a good bit higher leveled than N's Purrloin.

N smiled delightedly, and wasted no time in starting the battle. "Purrloin, my friend, use tackle!" he yelled. Purrloin nodded in compliance, and quickly lunged towards Snivy. Snivy unfortunately couldn't dodge fast enough and took the hit, but it didn't seem to faze him much. After regaining his composure, he smirked and wiped at the smudge Purrloin made on his face.

"Is that all you got?" Touya chided. "Let me show you how we play! Snivy, use vine whip!"

Snivy nodded and immediately used vine whip against N's Purrloin. The Purrloin tried to escape, but the whip of vines easily reached the small cat pokémon. Purrloin growled as it was attacked, and seemed to have taken it a little hard. Grass type attacks are naturally not very strong against dark type pokémon, but because Snivy was a good bit higher leveled than Purrloin, the attacks worked better.

"More! Let me hear the voice of your Pokémon!" shouted N, pointing towards Snivy. As if hearing N's thoughts, Purrloin leapt into another attack, attempting to scratch Snivy, but he was far too fast this time for it to reach him. Snivy dodged and regained his stance, awaiting Touya's command once again. Purrloin already looked exhausted.

Cheren stood beside me, whooping and cheering on Touya as he sent Snivy after Purrloin with tackle, but I couldn't help but stare at N. He was rather strange, his eyes full of focus and determination, but something in his gaze seemed different. He wasn't becoming distraught or angry upon seeing his pokémon taking such a beating from Snivy, much unlike the way I saw Cheren act whenever we had our first battle in my bedroom. His expression was full of understanding, and also he seemed to be somewhat lost in thought, like he was somehow silently talking to his Purrloin.

Before I even realized it, Snivy pulled one final blow upon Purrloin, causing Touya and Cheren to burst into a cheer. I smiled and lightly clapped for my brother as he returned Snivy and hugged the pokéball, whispering words of appreciation.

N stared at the ground, no one paying him much attention except me. I heard him quietly whisper, _"_I never expected to hear Pokémon say such things..."

Touya shrunk down Snivy's pokéball and gave N a proud stare, "See how well we work together? Snivy and I are great partners."

N shook his head and placed his now shrunken down pokéball in his pocket, then returned his gaze to meet Touya's. "As long as pokémon are confined in pokéballs... Pokémon will never become perfect beings. I have to change the world for pokémon, because they're my friends." Saying this he nodded towards the three of us as a farewell gesture, and turned slightly to depart through the gate. Before he fully turned though, he actually stood for a moment and met my gaze, which must've seemed a bit curious, as Cheren and Touya conversed immediately after. He stayed looking at me for just a moment longer, then nodded once again and walked off, his hair moving slightly in the breeze.

"Well, I think Snivy deserves a little snack for that, sound cool with you guys?" Touya asked.

"Go ahead and treat him, I'm going to go ahead to the next town, I want to get a start on my badges as soon as possible." Cheren then started to jog off in the direction of the gate and gave us a quick wave. "I'll catch you guys later, bye Touko!"

I waved back silently and turned towards Touya, giving him a quick nod to say I was up for treating Snivy. Touya smiled and started heading towards the Pokémon Center, in which I trailed behind him, but my mind still felt clouded. Even though it was over, I couldn't help but keep thinking about the very strange, mysterious person we had just met.

N, just exactly who was he?

* * *

><p>It wasn't too long before we reached my small flat on the side of Opelucid, the place I had been staying at for a while since my inability to leave the city became evident. Why exactly former trainers were prohibited from traveling, no one really quite understood, but because of said rule, I was unable to return home to Nuvema, even after the whole battle of the two heroes. I couldn't help but wonder if that stupid law was N's doing, or Ghetsis', but I wasn't curious enough to bother asking.<p>

As we entered into the small living area at the front, N seemed intrigued by my lame decorating and small amount of furniture. I looked at him somewhat skeptically, trying to understand why a king who is normally surrounded by beautiful rooms, decorations, and furniture would seem to be so interested in my cruddy apartment, but it seemed irrelevant to why we came, so I figured there was no point in bothering him about it.

"Have a seat wherever you like I suppose, not that there's much to choose from." I said, taking my place on the only couch in the room. N nodded and took a chair from the tiny kitchen connected to the living room, placing it on the other side of the banged up coffee table in front of my equally ruined couch.

I leaned back a little and crossed my legs, keeping my eyes on N as he still scanned the room with his emerald colored eyes. "This place is… Well I guess it's pretty homey." He said, attempting to compliment it when obviously there wasn't much to say about it. I shrugged, choosing to lay my eyes on the decaying color on the walls, an ugly grey that almost seemed to have a tinge of yellow to it. It wasn't like this was the first place I would choose to live in, but there can't be much else expected from a seventeen year old girl with only the bit of money she had earned from various pokémon battles along her journey. It was surprising that I could even afford the place as long as I did honestly.

"You don't have to lie, I know it's a mess, don't worry about it." I said reassuringly.

"Why do you live here then? It definitely isn't my first choice in living accommodations. Then again I am royalty." He said, shrugging.

I bit my bottom lip, considering snapping a comment about how it was really his fault, but if I wanted to make a partnership with him, it would do no good to just shoot insults. "Let's just say I didn't have much of an option."

N shrugged, "Well, if you desire to have a partnership, I still think I should know your name,"

On immediate instinct I grabbed at my locket again, heart slightly racing. _Should I tell him who I am, will he remember me? That was a long time ago, my outfit's changed a little since our last encounter I guess, and I do find it weird that he can't remember me, but is it a good idea to disclose such precious information so quickly?_

I sighed, making my face stern. "My name is Hilda, so how about you tell me a little bit about your current motives?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Oho, what a twist, Touko's keeping her name private for now. I honestly really hate this chapter, it just didn't seem like it was very smoothed into, it feels rather rushed. Oh well though, I can fairly assure you that the next chapter will be a lot more intriguing.<strong>

**I kind of like the idea of N and Touko periodically switching off on the point of view in the story, it seems to work so I'll go along with it. It probably won't be always just taking turns, but I'm sure you readers are quite smart enough to figure out whose point it is.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading, review if you'd like to!**


	3. Chapter 3

_I wonder if we can make this work, I really hope we can._

_For the time being, you're my only hope..._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 3<span>

Upon walking into the room she led me to, I couldn't help but feel a bit… uncomfortable. It was small, uninteresting, ugly and just not a very pleasant place in general. The walls were an unappealing color, it only appeared to have two or so rooms, minus the bathroom which I assumed was in the bedroom area, and the furniture didn't match anything and wasn't very pleasant to look at in general. In consideration for only furniture, the kitchen contained only two banged up chairs that didn't match, up against some sort of bar table, and the living area only had a coffee table that was dented in different spots, and a distressed white couch that appeared to have lost its true color years ago along with it. Now the couch was yellowed and covered in questionable brown spots in various spaces. It wasn't exactly the living accommodations I'd expect anyone to want to live in.

"Have a seat wherever you like I suppose, not that there's much to choose from." She said, taking her place on the ruined couch. I thanked that she was facing away from me because I felt my face sour on instinct, but so not to be rude I quickly waved it away and grabbed one of the chairs from the kitchen, the only one that didn't look like it would fall apart if I sat on it. After grabbing it I took my place on the other side of the coffee table and sat down carefully, secretly hoping it wouldn't fall out from under me.

I continued to sit there for a moment, still viewing the room as we sat there in silence. I didn't look at her because I didn't have the desire to be rude and stare, but she wasn't starting any conversation and I began to feel a little more uncomfortable than I already was. Plus I could tell she was staring me down.

"This place is… Well I guess it's pretty homey." I said, attempting to make small talk with her. Homey was definitely the last adjective I was thinking to describe the place, but I didn't want to insult her home and possibly resurrect the anger she had portrayed not long ago. I haven't interacted with other humans much, but this girl was scarier than even an angry pokémon whenever she got mad.

The girl shrugged and her eyes looked behind me to view the decaying paint on the walls. "You don't have to lie, I know it's a mess, don't worry about it." She reassured.

I bit the side of my lip, "Why do you live here then? It definitely isn't my first choice in living accommodations. Then again I am royalty." I said, shrugging at the idea. Sure, I may be royalty, but surely a girl of her age would want to live somewhere much…cleaner. I wouldn't even wish the lowest of my grunts to live in this place.

She hesitated for a moment, but then just lowered her head to the side and said, "Let's just say I didn't have much of an option."

I shrugged, deciding that if we were going to get anywhere with this partnership she wanted, we had to start conversing one way or another. I took in a breath and said, "Well, if you desire to have a partnership, I still think I should know your name." I held my breath immediately after saying it, wondering what her reaction would be. She seemed a little sensitive towards the idea when I first asked.

All of a sudden, she seemed to freeze up a little, as if my words had shocked and disturbed her. Her eyes went a little cloudy, like she was lost in thought or trying to think of what to do, and I couldn't help but find it somewhat suspicious. Was there something she was trying to hide from me? It wasn't like I had ever met her before.

Come to think of it, the only girl I had ever really interacted with was Touya's little sister, whose name was at the time coming as a blank to me. It had been a long time since I had last seen her, probably over half a year or so, but even then I had never interacted with her much, only a few times when I'd run into her, not long after speaking with Touya usually, and our conversations were very limited. This girl didn't seem to be the same girl though.

Touya's sister was dressed a bit differently, the last time I saw her she had been dressed in clothes that were more appropriate for the slowly dying winter. Clothes do not make a person who they are though. For one, his sister's skin was much more colorful compared to this girl's, whose skin was lightly tanned but absolutely lifeless. She was also a good bit skinnier, and her hair was longer and drained of color, volume, and life. Not only that, but her eyes were the wrong color anyways. Touya's sister had lovely eyes that matched his own, a warm brown color that would change to a gold color whenever light from the sun touched them. This girl's eyes were nice to look at, but at the same time, the blue color of them looked dreary and drained. She didn't have the same fire or energy the other girl had.

_I wonder how she's doing. _I thought silently.

Coming back to my senses, she was still looking a little out of it, and had started holding onto that locket I noticed earlier. I was nearly about to speak and see if I could snap her out of her thoughts, but suddenly, she sighed, let go of her locket, and gave me a stern look.

"My name is Hilda, so how about you tell me a little bit about your current motives?" She said, already working to get down to business.

I nodded and obliged, "Alright then, Hilda. As I'm sure you've easily figured out, I'm Team Plasma's ruler, King N, although I'd prefer if you just address me as N. Basically I've sort of, run away from home, I guess you could say." I said, putting air quotes over 'run away from home'. "You see, despite what most people of Unova believe, the whole idea of 'pokémon that belong to trainers must be rid of' was not at all my intention. Basically, I simply wanted pokémon and humans to live in harmony, away from each other. I was tired of seeing trainers harming their pokémon and forcing them into battles for their own sick pleasures. So, as I'm sure you're aware, I began setting the story of the two heroes of Truth and Ideals into play, and playing the Hero of Truth was Unova's own, Touya White.

"After winning, I was hoping the world would slowly begin turning in my image. Humans would release their pokémon, and life would slowly revert into a more peaceful and desirable setting for them, my friends." I said, emphasizing with my hands. Hilda stared at me strangely for a moment, but shrugged and allowed me to continue. "Unfortunately, I was never really permitted to leave the castle like I had originally planned. No speeches, no public appearances, and no way to spread the words I wanted to reach to Unova, possibly to give them some ease towards their pokemons' situations. I never even got to see the status of this place. I would have loved to see how the world was growing, how people and pokémon alike were doing, and I was constantly assured that everything was fine and there was no need for me to do anymore than I did for the few days out of the week I defeated Touya. I was trapped with paper work and was told there was no time for me to worry over the status of a country I was supposed to be the leader of, despite how much I wanted to know of it.

"Recently though, I had been hearing whispers among the lower members of Team Plasma throughout the halls of the castle. They were going on about how things were becoming harder to take care of at home, people were being foreclosed, and many people were succumbing to working at Team Plasma simply because it was one of the only jobs available at the time, and it wasn't hard to get into. Their ramblings made me more curious than ever to find out about the status of Unova, but despite how often I asked, everyone told me everything was fine. That was until I finally convinced my care taker, Concordia, to deliver me a newspaper from as recent as she could manage. After much persuading she gave it to me, with much reluctance I might add, and I could barely believe what I was reading. It wasn't long before I confronted Ghetsis and demanded to know the meaning of it all, but all he did was laugh and say that everything was going just as I planned, which was a lie."

I sighed and grabbed the bridge of my nose, shaking my head before looking back up to Hilda's awaiting gaze. "I left a few moments later, but not before hearing him tell me that I only had a day to escape before he would send the Shadow Triad after me, a group of trained 'ninjas' as you may call them that were supposedly supposed to be on my side, but it's clear to me now that they work for him. I might have a few ideas up my sleeve towards how I can hopefully stop whatever he's doing, especially because I feel there may be something more to all of this, but I've noticed I've really failed to prepare myself for the journey, thus why you find me in Opelucid today."

As I finished, I looked back to Hilda expectantly for any kind of reaction. She still sat there, somewhat lost in thought, but she soon nodded her head slowly in understanding.

"It sounds like you've been through a lot, N." she said, twiddling her thumbs together. "I never would've actually expected that from you."

I nodded once, "So you see now that I have no intention to agitate the situation anymore than I already have. If anything, I want to stop it before it progresses even further. My friends are being harmed, and clearly that is quite unacceptable. Do you understand my motives now?" I asked.

She nodded again, "You seem fairly legit, but how do I know that you're not just trying to infiltrate my privacy and spy on me? There's a good bit of people around here who I know have been trying to get Plasma after me, apparently there's a quick buck to be earned for ratting out people who help out pokémon."

"I promise you I have no intentions to do so. Look here," I said, standing up out of the seat and stretching out my arms, "Pat me down if you want, I have no recording devices of any sort."

Hilda immediately uncrossed her legs and gave me a 'what the hell do you think you're doing?' stare. Feeling put down under her eyes, I immediately sat back down and put my arms to my sides. Hilda continued to stare for a moment, but then shook her head and waved her hand in front of her as if to tell herself to let it go. "Okay whatever, I guess I believe you."

I smiled, "Great, so then maybe you can tell me a little bit about yourself?"

Hilda shook her head, "I'd rather not disclose that, anything about me really doesn't matter."

I squinted in suspicion, "But I told you about my situation, I'd really like to know of your own, why are you here?"

She shook her head again, "That's still not really important, I'd really rather not answer."

"Can you at least tell me why you want to destroy Team Plasma?" I begged. Hilda sat there thoughtfully for a moment, placing a finger to her chin, but eventually nodded.

"Fine, I guess. They took my pokémon, so I want them gone, isn't that believable enough for you?" she said, crossing her arms in apparent frustration.

I raised an eyebrow, part of me not seeing the full truth to her words, but I simply shrugged because I didn't want to make her any angrier than she was already becoming. "I suppose that's enough. You do seem to have a lot of fire in your veins towards my former kingdom though. Did you have any plans in mind for taking them down?"

"I kind of expected you to; didn't you say something about having some up your sleeve?"

"I was simply wondering if you had any suggestions."

"Well, I have none."

"Are you su-"

"Just tell me what you have in mind, N!" she yelled, her frustration now turning to a lightly burning anger. Hilda obviously didn't have much patience, or a very good temper at that.

"Well, it's not really much, but I want to visit Lacunosa." I said.

"Why?" she responded, a curious look taking place of her slightly enraged one. I internally sighed in relief.

"I have a theory, and I want to see if I can get some assistance from a friend of mine." I said, hoping to feed her curiosity with the small explanation. Really there was much more to it than that, but if she could keep secrets, I could too.

"Is that all you have to it?" she asked skeptically.

"For now, I suppose, that's really all you need to know." I answered, giving a little smirk of satisfaction.

She sighed, "This partnership won't run well without trust."

"Well then I'll just trust you whenever I can tell you trust me." I said back.

She groaned in annoyance and looked down at her wrist, eyeing the watch that rested there. A second afterwards her eyes grew large in surprise, "Oh wow, it's like nine o'clock already."

I joined in her surprise and looked out the small window on the side of the room. Surely enough, it had grown much darker outside, and the city looked very much unlike the last time I had seen it dark outside in Opelucid. It was so barren and shown barely any light, so different compared to the bustling city night life I had seen before my last battle with Touya. It was actually a little heart wrenching.

Hilda got up and stretched, allowing herself to let out a loud yawn. "Well, I guess we should get to sleep then, especially if you want to get moving. I have a feeling Ghetsis is going to hold you to that deal of his." She then moved to a corner of the room over to a tiny cabinet on the floor that I hadn't even noticed. She opened the door and retrieved a folded up cloth of some sort, then threw it at me. I caught it on instinct, but I caught it a little too late and the fabric spilled out onto the floor. Hilda cracked a smile at my clumsiness, but she quickly replaced it with a tight line across her lips.

She walked over to the other room and grabbed the rusted doorknob of the creaky wood door. "You'll sleep in here I guess." She said, motioning towards the couch. "Tomorrow we can head out. Have a good sleep, N." she said, walking into her room and closing the door behind her. I could hear the faint noise of her locking the door after it closed. I sighed, we were already not off to a great start.

I stared at the couch for a moment, analyzing its age and ruin, and quickly decided the shag carpet flooring was a more appealing place to sleep. I reluctantly grabbed the nicer of the two pillows resting on each arm of the couch, and threw it on the ground along with the thin blanket. Sighing, I removed my hat and over shirt and placed them both on the coffee table beside my pathetic excuse for a sleeping arrangement, and laid down on the floor.

Slightly exhausted from my emotional turmoil, and all my newly acquired stress, I held the blanket close to my face, and closed my eyes, praying to Arceus for a dreamless sleep.

* * *

><p>The next morning, I woke up to the smell of some kind of food cooking. With my eyes closed, I couldn't quite place what it was, but it smelled like toast. Reluctantly I opened my eyes, only to quickly close them again after they were blinded from the piercing sun shining in through the window. I groaned and rubbed at my eyelids, trying to hopefully get them to adjust to the sudden change in lighting, and eventually opened them without any problem. I blinked a few times to rid of the moisture left over from sleep, and sat up as I stretched out my arms, letting out a long yawn.<p>

I couldn't help but cringe as I felt a pain going down my back. I definitely wasn't very used to having to sleep on the floor, but I would never expect Hilda to have offered me anything more. Even if she had, I would likely decline, one never puts a lady in the lower of accommodations.

"Oh, you're finally awake huh, sleepyhead?" said a voice from the kitchen. I quickly turned my head to see Hilda with a small smile across her lips, holding up a small plate with a couple pieces of toasted bread. I couldn't help but match her nice expression as she set the plate onto the bar table, motioning with her hand for me to get up and join her in the kitchen.

I stood up, stretching out my back and shaking out my aching arms and legs. I looked down at the coffee table where my hat and shirt still rested, but decided not to bother dressing in them at the moment. After a minute or two of stretching, I grabbed the chair I had used the day before that was still resting in the living area, and brought it with me into her small kitchen. Meanwhile, Hilda had preoccupied herself with raiding the fridge for a few things, looking to be dressings for the toast she had prepared. Butter, jelly of different berry flavors, and even some peanut butter were laid out onto the table, a few knives set next to them. As soon as she was satisfied with her options, she closed the refrigerator and grabbed the other chair for herself, pulling it up to the table and taking a seat.

"Well, go ahead and grab your fill, there's plenty more bread if you're still hungry." She offered, pushing the plate of toast towards me. I smiled and complied easily, grabbing a piece of the cooked bread and a knife close to the now opened jar of cherri berry jelly. I didn't say it, but I couldn't help but feel grateful towards the fact that she hadn't cooked bacon or sausage of some kind. Just the smell has proven to make me queasy; it's hard to take in the idea that you may very well be eating one of your friends.

Hilda followed in my haste, surprising me when she immediately grabbed the same jar of jelly to smother her own toast with as soon as I was done; it was nice to see that we had something more in common.

"Thanks for the free breakfast." I said, holding my piece in the air and then taking a bite a second after. I had a moment of euphoria in tasting the jelly and bread mix, it had truly been a while since I had actually had something so simple to make, but yet it was still very tasty.

Hilda smiled, indulging in her own piece, "No problem, it's not like it took long." She said, tacking a small laugh onto her comment. It was so interesting seeing her like this now, especially considering that maybe twelve or so hours ago, she was a bit on edge. It's surprising how much a good night sleep can change your attitude.

After finishing my first piece and grabbing another, I leaned back a little in my chair, being careful to not let it go too far back. "Well I appreciate it nonetheless." After taking another bite and swallowing, I looked at her and waited for her gaze to meet mine. "So, when do you want to start heading out?"

Hilda shrugged, "Whenever we finish breakfast I guess, I don't know about you but I'm pretty sick of this place, the sooner I leave the better." She said, wiping her mouth to rid of bread crumbs.

I raised an eyebrow, "What, are you not planning to come back?"

Hilda suddenly burst into a fit of laughter, nearly choking on the piece of food she had in her mouth. "Are you kidding me?" she said between laughs. "I've been waiting for an opportunity like this for a while. If we can actually get past the guards patrolling the entrance to the Village Bridge, I'm never going to come back to this crappy place again. There's a whole world out there waiting for me outside this dead city."

I smiled, "I like your enthusiasm."

She smirked back, "Thanks, your highness."

We sat a little while more in silence, not taking long to consume every piece of toast Hilda had set out for us. She must've been hungry because she even went as far as to lick the plate for crumbs, a little far from classy, but somewhat charming nonetheless. She really was quite a character. After we were done and Hilda threw the plate not so nicely into the sink, she quickly excused herself to her bedroom to grab a few things. I took the time to grab my shirt and hat and attempt to make myself look somewhat decent. I couldn't help but feel a little dirty from sleeping on the not so clean floor, especially because I was used to taking daily showers in the morning after sleeping on my nice, soft and clean bed. Sacrifices had to be made for my cause though, I would take having to sleep on a dirty floor to just letting my father win, any day.

Hilda soon emerged from her room, holding two knapsacks in her hands, the pink one I had seen her with the day before, and a relatively similar one that was a blue color. Without any warning she tossed me the blue bag, but I caught it without any trouble. It was heavier than I expected it to be and I lost my balance a little upon catching it, but I soon regained it and held the bag in my hands with ease.

"What's all in here?" I asked, not wanting to look through it just yet.

Hilda shrugged, "Basic things: food, pokémon healing agents, a couple things to sleep with, you know. Just things we may need on the road."

"You seem pretty knowledgeable about what you need on the road." I complimented.

She smiled, "Well, I was a pokémon trainer once; I'd say I know my way around pretty decently."

I nodded, not very surprised at the fact that she was an ex-trainer. She was very attached to pokémon it seemed, much like me, much like Touya, she definitely had the heart of a trainer. I watched as she threw her shoes onto the couch and raced after them, quickly slamming down onto it and slipping the brown, dirtied boots on, not even bothering to untie and then retie the hot pink laces. She then grabbed her bag and slipped her arms through it, then ran to the far side of the room and switched off the lights.

I felt a little confused at her haste, "Don't you want to get the rest of the food out of your fridge?" I suggested.

She rolled her eyes, "I could care less about that crap, let the next people who rent this dump have it, come on." She said, already hurrying out the door. I slipped my bag on and followed her outside the room into the equally unattractive hallway, letting her slam the door behind us before she bolted down the hallway to the stairs. I followed a little ways behind her, her excitement already exhausting me. Maybe our partnership would work out after all.

As soon as we reached down the stairs, Hilda slowed down and walked over to the check-in office at the front of the room. A decently aged obese man with dirty apparel and five o'clock shadow sat at the main desk, smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper next to a sign that clearly read 'No Smoking'. _How revolting_, I thought.

Hilda marched her way over to the desk and slammed her hand which held her pair of keys, down onto the wood surface. The man jumped from his reading and gave her an angry glare, which she gladly gave back to him with decent intensity.

"What do you want, brat? Here to pay for next month's rent, or do you have another damn excuse?" he asked in a gruff, rather rude voice. I nearly wanted to step in and scold him for his unkindness towards a lady, but Hilda was quick with her wit.

"More like I'm leaving this piece of shit dump. You might as well forget about your damn money, Frank, consider the leftover food in my fridge your payment. It looks like you'd enjoy it anyways." She chided.

"Why you little bi-"

"Whatever," she interrupted. "This place isn't worth any money. Thanks for the terrible service jackass, have a good life!" Hilda then began to cheer and ran out of the building. The man cursed under his breath and went back to his newspaper without a second thought, and after standing there awkwardly for a moment, I ran outside after her to join in her elation.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Oh god, this took me forever. I was working on this one all day, haha. I hope it was a little more enjoyable than the last chapter, I felt like it was. I went for a lot more small details, and I personally think it came out rather well, but I suppose the real judge is you readers.<strong>

**Just as a side note, I may seem to be updating daily, but it's because lately I've had literally nothing to do. These chapters are getting a little harder to write, despite that I'm kind of on a roll, and soon enough marching band camp will start and I'll hardly have time to write, but I'll try to keep updating as long as you guys keep enjoying it. Thank you so much everyone!**

**Edit: Oh man, lol, I totally mixed up my bridges, but I fixed it :) Please warn me if you notice mistakes guys!**


	4. Chapter 4

_Looks like our journey's now begun._

_I won't tell you how excited I am, but I'm glad to finally be on the road._

_This is going to be fun._

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 4<span>

I cheered as I exited the rundown apartment, flipping off the doors as they closed behind me, but making sure to pull my finger back as N walked outside. I didn't know if he even knew what that meant considering how sheltered I knew he was, but it was far better to be safe than sorry. N seemed a little shocked at the little outburst I had made back in there, but there was no way I was leaving without giving Frank a piece of my mind. The lard ass hadn't given me an ounce of respect since day one, acting as though because I was giving him my money to stay in his shitty place, he was being burdened. It wasn't like he had many other patrons, and I sure as hell would never have decided to stay there if the rent hadn't been so cheap, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

N joined me outside, showing a small smile as I jumped around like a little kid. He obviously had no idea how much I hated that place. He never even got to see my bedroom which I can assure was no better than the living room. No, I wanted nothing more to do with that hell hole. I felt almost trapped there, maybe just like how N felt trapped in his castle. _I guess we have a lot more in common than I thought._

"You seem a bit excited." N said, pushing his long ponytail behind him as the wind blew it about.

I nodded, "You really have no idea, so how do you want to do this?"

N pressed his finger to his chin and thought for a moment, then looked over in the direction of the gate that led to Village Bridge. From what we could see, there were no grunts guarding the gate, but we couldn't determine how well guarded it was from just the front. Grunts could be guarding the other side, or maybe even just guarding the other gate that actually led you onto the bridge. There were a lot of risks to be taken any way you looked at it.

"The only way to know how well they're guarding the place is to check ourselves, but how to do that without getting in any kind of trouble, that's where I'm stumped." N said, trying to come up with a solution to the problem. I joined in his attempt at problem solving, looking closely at the gate. It was surrounded by a fence and a thick part of the forest around the city, making it nearly impossible to go around. It really seemed the only way past it was right through it, but the danger of just waltzing in was far too great, especially with N by my side. I doubted that even though N was supposedly free to escape for one day, the grunts would not immediately rat him out if they had the chance. They may adore their king, but a few brownie points from the sages was probably enticing.

I scrunched up my face staring at the gate, probably looking a bit weird, but then a solution hit me. It seemed a little stupid, but it would likely be our only option.

"Just let me go and check, N. If there's anyone in there, I'll just tell them I was looking around and didn't mean to step inside."

N seemed a little shocked, "But what if they check your identification? You may get in trouble and have a watch put on you."

I rolled my eyes. "Please, you think that in this situation I wouldn't have fake I.D.s? I have at least five different ones to keep me from the law's eye if they catch me. Speaking of which, we should probably get you a few just in case, but we'll worry about that later." I said, starting to head in the direction of the gate. I heard N's footsteps a little bit behind me, but he seemed a little hesitant to get near it. From afar it seemed dark, no travel guides were ever stationed in the gates anymore, but then again no one ever really went through them now. It was practically illegal for any ex-trainers to travel along the routes of Unova anymore, but maybe that was because they didn't want people messing with the pokémon that were still living along the routes. Luckily for me, the route to the Pokémon League was never guarded until you got up to Team Plasma's castle, giving me full access to associate myself with the few pokémon that still lived in the forest nearby.

Coming closer to the gate, I looked to make sure that no one was around the entrance, mostly so no one would call me out as I approached, and looked towards N to give him a hint to stay put. He nodded once and stationed himself behind one of the small abandoned buildings near the gate, but still stuck his head out just enough to watch. I turned back towards the entrance, still looking through and seeing nothing but darkness, but I took a deep breath and walked ahead. Walking inside, I noticed that the place looked about as abandoned as the gate leading to the Pokémon League, which was a little refreshing, but whether the outside was guarded or not was still a mystery. I walked farther through the room, hoping to not see anyone on the outside, and finally made my way carefully to the edge of the door. I poked my head outside a little, just enough to see the grass by the road rolling in the wind, but I gasped and quickly pulled my head back inside the room, trying to calm myself upon what I saw.

I wasn't caught, but outside were dozens of Team Plasma grunts, walking around in patterns along the long road, around and on the small bridge by a waterfall, and in various patches of grass, all in search of law violators. The route was completely guarded, and you could see grunts all the way up to the gate leading to the bridge. It was likely that they hadn't even been there the other day, but without a doubt, Ghetsis probably told all of his employees of N's leave, probably sending them off into a frantic search for their beloved king. The stakes were already against us, and we hadn't even started moving.

I retreated from my spot at the door, backing up first and then sprinting out the other side, back to Opelucid and N. I breathed in heavily and grabbed my knees for support as N came out of hiding, a concerned look set on his face.

"Are you okay? What happened, did you get caught?" he asked, his eyes searching for a way he could help.

I shook my head and waved him away, "No, no, I'm fine." I said in between breaths. "I just got scared. There's a lot out there."

"How many?" he asked.

"Probably about a dozen or so, they're everywhere, probably searching for you."

"Damn." N said, slamming his fist into his hand. "I knew Ghetsis would have them act fast, but this fast? Ridiculous."

"Well do you know what we can do to get past them? With them in the way, there's no way we're going to be able to go any farther. Not only are you obviously you, but I'm pretty sure they won't be too happy catching someone like me around there either." I said, already worrying about if we were going to be able to move or not. Of course I was worried about N getting caught, he stuck out like a sore thumb and we had no way to disguise him, but what if they recognized me as well? I certainly wouldn't tell N about it for the time being, but I've had quite a few run ins with Team Plasma. Not only have they caught me now and again for having a pokémon, to which I easily escaped, but for a while I was a target because of who I was related to.

It wasn't like people didn't know who I was; a good bit of people easily recognized me as Touya's sister before I began to mask my identity. I was around him a pretty good bit during our journey after all, even when Team Plasma started cutting into Touya's business. I wasn't around him constantly, but we did get back together here and there, before the whole fiasco at Dragonspiral Tower anyways. After the battle between him and N though, it didn't take very long for the Team Plasma officers to realize who I was, forcing me to change my style slightly and buy my damn blue contacts, which cost a fortune. For some reason, Team Plasma seemed very interested in capturing me, maybe to find out where Touya was, but it wasn't like I knew that.

No one knew where he was. I wondered if N knew, but maybe that was why Plasma was after me to begin with.

N was still standing in thought, his eyes clouded as he tried to calculate a solution. All of a sudden, it was like it hit him out of nowhere, and he smirked as he started walking over to the gate. I ran after him and walked beside him when I caught up, wondering just what he was up to.

We entered through the darkness, the only light coming through the two openings in the walls, and N stood near the door leading to the guarded road, but not close enough to where any of the grunts would be able to see him. He then just stood there, not moving, but still breathing normally. I raised an eyebrow, watching his face which seemed to be thoroughly concentrated, but I had no idea what he was doing.

We stood there for a few minutes, with me still waiting for N to do something, but all he did was cross his arms in frustration and begin tapping his foot. I was rather confused, not really understanding what he was doing, or what he seemed to be waiting for, but I felt like he had a plan and I wasn't going to disturb his methods.

Suddenly, he cracked a smile, and then knelt down on one of his knees. If I was confused before I was really confused then, and I was nearly about to ask what he was doing, until I saw something kind of shocking. Coming through the door we were facing was a pokémon, a Golduck to be exact, one of the pokémon you didn't often see because it wasn't native to Unova. I was shocked as N met its gaze and patted it on its head as if they knew each other and were the best of friends.

"I appreciate you coming over here, Golduck. My friend and I could really use your help." N said to the pokémon. I walked closer over to N to get a closer look at the pokémon. I hadn't ever seen one so up close before, besides maybe seeing pictures of them in magazines. They were native to the Kanto and Johto regions, regions that were fairly far away from Unova, and not a common sight for people to see. I had never really been on this route before, and couldn't help but wonder if other non native pokémon resided along the route as well.

Golduck nodded his head, grunting a small noise as he looked at N, seeming to somehow be communicating with him without speaking. I couldn't help but feel my mouth part slightly in wonder. I had never actually noticed that N could really speak with pokémon, the first time he told us I seriously thought he was lying. I guess he was able to hear them telepathically, maybe even speak to them that way.

"We need a way to get past all these Team Plasma members without being noticed, and I was wondering if you could possibly distract them so we can get past them. If you'd help, I'm sure Hilda and I can most definitely make it worth your while." N said.

Golduck raised an eyebrow, his interest piqued by N's offer, and he seemed to be asking something like, "What would you have in mind?"

N looked to me expectantly, his eyes silently pleading for something to give the Golduck. Understanding, I removed my bag and unzipped it to search for pokémon food of some sort. Thankfully, at the bottom of my bag, I managed to find a small container of different kinds of berries. I handed it off to N and reclosed my bag; he took it graciously and opened the lid. Golduck smiled brightly at the container of berries N offered him, and quickly reached inside for a hand full. He happily stuffed them into his mouth, making a silly face as he enjoyed the berries that made me giggle. N smiled and closed the container back up, handing it back to me so I could stick it back in my bag.

When Golduck was done with his berries, he smiled and nodded his head once to show he was up for helping the two of us. "Excellent," N said to him. "Basically, all I need you to do is maybe attack a few members or stir up some trouble with whatever attacks you can. Try to make sure that every member gathers around you, and try your best not to get hurt. If you want, you can meet up with us at the other gate. Does that sound good to you, my friend?"

Golduck grinned mischievously and nodded, he seemed to like the idea of causing trouble. Without skipping a beat he ran outside of the room, already catching the attention of a few Plasma members, but not yet provoking them or leading their sight to where N and I were hiding. As soon as he started catching attention, Golduck quickly unleashed a psychic type attack around the members closest to him, the attack looking to be confusion. The Plasma members under his attack immediately started to clasp their ears, hoping to drone out the noise and pain the attack was causing, many of them were running into each other and dropping any weapons they might've been carrying. Golduck then began to attack these members in their daze and confusion with fury swipes and what looked to be water pulse. It wasn't long before other members were soon attempting to help the attacked members and trying to take down the out of control pokémon, but Golduck was not letting up.

"Alright, let's go while most of them are distracted, if we stay on the sides we probably won't get caught." Said N, motioning with his fingers for us to get a move on. I nodded in agreement and we ran like hell outside of the gate. Beside us as we were running, officers of the group were barking out orders and yelling, trying to get them to gain a control over the pokémon, but members were being knocked out left and right. Many others of the grunts kept running down to the scene of the pokémon's attacks, quickly clearing the path for N and I to make an easy escape. Nobody was noticing us at all, his plan was absolutely brilliant! By the time we made it over to the waterfall, there were no longer any Team Plasma grunts blocking our path, and we quickly sprinted over to the side of the gate where we could hide behind the thick tree cover. By the looks of it, Golduck still had his hands full and wouldn't be joining us, so all it would take is for us to do a quick scan of the inside of the gate before heading through.

I quickly made my way out of the tree cover and peeked inside the door, making sure that there were no longer any Plasma members left inside the actually lit up room, and as soon as I knew the coast was clear, I nodded to N as a sign for him to run in with me. N quickly complied and came alongside me so we could run in together, and we quickly sprinted through the building and out the other side, noticing there were no more members as far as we could currently see. We still ran over to the side of the gate and hid in the thick trees to make sure there was no one else around, but after a few minutes, we seemed to silently agree that the place was barren for the time being.

Both of us moved away from the trees, taking the time to actually look at the sight before us. We were now officially outside of Opelucid, and standing before the Village Bridge we had been heading towards. I had never actually been to this bridge before, but it was undeniably beautiful to look at.

The place was rustic and old looking, but it had a certain charm to it that made it very pretty. The river it hovered over was large, but the water was seemingly clear, a few tiny grassed islands resting here and there. On the sides of the bridge, small homes rested along the railing, looking out over both sides of the river. There weren't many people walking around, but there were actually a few that seemed to be simply going about their day, but none of them seemed particularly happy.

N and I glanced at one another and sighed in relief, pleased to see that we didn't seem to need to worry about running into a grunt around here for the time being, but there was still always the need to be cautious. I looked back at the gate we had just came through, no longer being able to see the group of panicking members, and I couldn't help but feel worry towards the Golduck, he still hadn't returned. Looking up at N, he seemed to be wondering about the same thing, because I could see nothing but concern and worry clouding his eyes.

"Can you hear him anymore?" I asked him, hoping to hear good news.

N shook his head, "No, I can't. He was saying something and it suddenly cut off. I hope that doesn't mean that they've…" he trailed off. His voice had been getting quieter as he spoke.

I bit my bottom lip, praying to Arceus that the Golduck was alright, but we couldn't worry about him, we didn't have a lot of time. "I-I'm sure he's fine, N. Don't worry about him, he's a tough guy. I could tell."

N seemed reluctant to take in my words, but he simply nodded and turned away from the gate, walking forward over to the bridge. I followed and gave one last glance towards the gate, sending Arceus one last prayer to please have kept our newly found friend safe.

For a place as small as the Village Bridge was, it was actually seemingly not in that bad of shape. Every home seemed to be occupied save for a few that had 'Vacancy' or 'For Sale' signs taped to the doors, but there was no real sign of foreclosure. Likely this place had been somewhat disconnected from the region anyways, so it seemed to be thriving well on its own, much unlike some of the big cities that relied on receiving money from goods and services pertaining to pokémon, like Opelucid. They had their own food sources on the side of the small town, small businesses that seemed to be doing well just by the purchases of the residents, and no real need for any outside influences. It was a whole other world compared to Opelucid.

N and I were careful not to bring much attention to ourselves, especially N, for we didn't want anyone noticing his royal status and attacking us. We simply walked along the bridge as though we were sightseeing, which probably wasn't an uncommon sight, despite the laws placed on traveling the region. The bridge was somewhat long, but luckily didn't take us very long to get across, and we easily made it to the end without running into any problems.

I could only hope that the rest of our day would go as smoothly.

* * *

><p>"Great job you guys, all of you did amazing!" I said to my three pokémon as we exited the museum. Snivy, Purrloin and Panpour all cheered their various noises in response, all pleased by how well they had done in the battle. I held the ball that contained my fainted Pidove close to my face, giving the ball a small kiss and whispering, "You did a great job too, Pidove. Don't worry, you'll be all rested up and ready to go soon." I then shrank the ball down and placed it back in my pocket, smiling at the other three and patting each of their heads.<p>

"Alright guys, go ahead and rest up in your pokéballs for a bit so we can get you healed up back at the Pokémon Center, and then I'll treat you guys to some dinner, how's that sound?" I said. All three of them cheered excitedly in response. Taking that as a yes, I grabbed their pokéballs and pressed them in unison, watching as their bodies merged into red light beams and disappeared into the red and white spheres. As soon as they were all inside for sure, I shrunk each of them down and placed them back inside my pocket along with Pidove, and rushed over to the Pokémon Center so I could get them all fixed up quickly.

I had just defeated Nacrene City's gym, merely a few days after my journey started I might add. Thankfully the day still had a little light to it, so I'd still be able to give my friends an outside dinner treat before we bunked in the Pokémon Center for the night. I had made a couple more friends along the way of my journey, those friends being my Pidove, Panpour and Purrloin. I received Panpour from a nice girl asking to take care of her, which I gladly accepted, and Pidove and Purrloin came along on my way to Nacrene. They both wanted to battle, and there was no way that I was going to turn the opportunity down, and in the end they decided they wanted to come along with me, so I caught them in a few extra pokéballs I had been toting with me. I couldn't be happier, I already had a nearly completed team.

Touya had left a little bit before my first gym battle back in Striaton City, saying that he would stay in contact with me, but he felt he needed to go off on his own for a bit. He had already gotten the badge to Striaton in the year before I became a trainer, and I could tell he was itching to get a move on to receive his next badge. He was more than ready to defeat the next gym, so reluctantly I let him go off on his own, but made sure to make him swear that he would wait for me in Castelia. After the usual teasing and messing with my hair, he accepted and ran off, so I hadn't seen him in a few days.

I had heard from him a few hours earlier, saying that he had had a run in with the same kid we had met a few days before in Accumula City, N. He also said that he had run into members of the same group that we had heard the strange speech from there, saying that they were some organization called Team Plasma, and they had stolen an artifact from the Nacrene City Museum, which doubled as their gym. He told me he had successfully gotten the artifact back from the low life members, and that their pokémon were fairly easy to defeat so he wasn't hurt, but he definitely felt there was something more to this group than we had originally thought. All I could do was tell him to be careful and that I would hopefully see him soon before hanging up my Xtranciever, but even though he was my big brother and I knew he could handle himself, I couldn't help but worry about him.

Trying to shake the thoughts from my mind, I entered the Pokémon Center, passing by the Poké Store's counter and walking over to where a kind nurse sat at the main desk.

"Hi, welcome to the Pokémon Center. May I help you?" she asked in a kind voice. I nodded and retrieved my pokéballs from my pocket, enlarging them and placing them on the counter.

"Just a quick heal for these three, and this one is fainted at the moment. I'd appreciate if you could help her out." I requested.

The pink haired nurse nodded and slid the pokéballs off the counter, handing them off to an Audino with a nurse's hat on its head. "We'll be sure to take care of that for you, they should be ready to go within thirty minutes. Is there anything else?"

"Do you have any extra rooms for the night?" I asked.

"Certainly," she said, glancing at her computer for a quick second. "How does room sixteen sound? It's got two beds, one bathroom, and is just right down the hall." She said, pointing down to a hall on the right side of the desk.

I smiled. "That sounds perfect."

The nurse smiled and opened up a box on the desk containing room keys, then grabbed a notebook which she opened up for me. "Just sign here where it's labeled 'sixteen', and the room will be yours until nine in the morning."

I grabbed a pen resting on the side of the desk and signed my name along the line, then handed her back the notebook. She took it from me and handed me a room key saying, "Alright, there you go Miss Touko. We hope you enjoy your stay and your pokémon will be ready to pick in a bit, so come back soon." She finished, giving a small bow and turning to return to her duties behind the desk. I turned to leave the center, deciding it would be best for me to walk around outside for a bit, rather than wait on my pokémon to come out.

I headed outside in the slightly crisp air, noticing it was now very obvious that September was coming. I shivered lightly against the unexpected breeze that past by me, lifting up my hair with it as it began to fly loosely in the air. _Maybe I should consider putting it up in a ponytail._ I thought.

Walking along outside, the evening sun was going down a bit, but you could tell there would still be a good few hours of light left, despite how dim it was. A guitarist stood outside on the patio of a small café on the northern end of town, creating a soft melody that calmed my excited nerves from my earlier gym battle. Lenora had been tough, despite the fact that she had just been through my brother a few hours earlier, easily taking out my Pidove and putting my other pokémon on the edge, but with our heart and determination we eventually pummeled her and claimed our newest badge with ease. I now had two gym badges in my case, and I couldn't be more proud of my new friends. We were becoming a great team.

As I was walking, completely lost in my thoughts, I accidentally bumped into someone, knocking my badge case out of my bag's side pocket.

"Oh shoot, I'm really sorry." I said, reaching down to grab my case.

"No, allow me." The person said, beating me to the case. I noticed that the bracelets he wore around his wrist looked somewhat familiar as he grabbed the case, and that his voice sounded familiar as well. Standing back up, I immediately realized who I had just run into.

"N." I said, somewhat shocked upon seeing him stand before me. His face seemed to be scrunched up in confusion, but after a moment his eyes lit up in realization as he seemed to recognize me.

"Oh, hello there, I believe the name was Touko, am I correct?" he asked, handing me back the accidentally opened pink badge case. I nodded and took it back, closing it and placing it back into my bag. As soon as it secured I turned my attention back up to his gaze, not exactly liking the fact that he was towering over me. He had to be at least 5'11.

"Thanks, sorry that I ran into you." I said, apologizing once more for good measure.

N waved his hand in front of him, "Don't worry about it, it was my fault as well, I should have been paying attention." He said. _Quite the gentlemen,_ I thought to myself.

"So uh, what brings you to Nacrene City?" I asked, trying to stir up a little conversation so I could end it quickly and get moving.

"I was here earlier to achieve earning my second badge, and now I'm just tying off a few bits of business before heading off to Castelia. It looks like you were here earning your second badge as well, congratulations." He said approvingly.

"Thank you." I said, laughing nervously. I was feeling a bit awkward.

N shrugged, "So, where are your pokémon?" he asked.

"Oh, they're back at the Pokémon Center. I'm letting them get healed up a bit before we eat dinner, although, Pidove unfortunately fainted during the battle. She'll be okay though, the nurse said she'd be fixed right up with no problem." I said, smiling.

N's face went stern. "So your pokémon were injured?' he asked.

I scratched the back of my neck, "Um, well, yeah. But they weren't hurt badly; they all seemed fine before we headed to the Pokémon Center, just your usual cuts and bruises that heal within a day or so, no big deal."

N shook his head, "No big deal? Any pokémon that's injured in a battle is a big deal. It goes to show why I despise battling, because all it does is hurt my friends." He sighed and turned away from me, seeming to already be done with the conversation. "By the way," he said, turning his head back slightly, "Have you seen your older brother around?"

I shook my head, "The last time I talked to him, he was heading up to Castelia City."

N nodded his head once. "I see, well perhaps I'll try to meet up with him again another time. Perhaps I'll see you around again someday." N grabbed his hat and tipped it a bit. "Goodbye, Touko."

I watched him walk away a bit, clenching my fists before reaching out my arms and shouting, "Wait!" N turned to meet my gaze again, his eyes meeting mine and awaiting what I had to say.

"You know you're wrong, right?" I asked, making him raise an eyebrow. "Pokémon battling doesn't just cause pain, it's fun and pokémon really enjoy it."

"How do you know that?" he asked, crossing his arms and awaiting an answer.

I felt a little intimidated against his stare, knowing that he had to be a bit older than I was, but I bucked up and decided to speak my mind. "Because I can see how happy they are. They get so excited when I ask them if they're up for a battle, and they're great sports about it too. It's not just about them getting hurt, it's about them having fun."

N only looked at me for a moment, a bit of thoughtfulness in his eyes, but then he simply looked away and waved his hand goodbye. "Another time, Touko." He said, dismissing me as he walked away.

I rolled my eyes as he walked off, hardly able to believe his views, but something else plagued my mind as he left.

What did he want to do with Touya?

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Haha, I'm still on a roll! :P<strong>

**I don't really like the fact that I had another filler here, the whole viewing the past in Touko's chapters is already getting on my nerves, but I'm going to try to make sure this doesn't happen every time she's the one whose point of view you're seeing. Regardless of that, I hope you enjoyed this fillertastic chapter, the next one I'm already planning to be a little more exciting. :D Thanks again for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

_The world is being destroyed._

_Why are you doing this?_

_Why?_

* * *

><p><span>Chapter 5<span>

Whenever we left the Village Bridge, honestly neither Hilda nor I knew exactly what to expect. Just beyond the gate was nothing but green hills, the grass slightly swaying in the breeze and an extremely scarce amount of Plasma members lurking around the area. In fact, with the hills as cover, they were extremely avoidable and we had no sweat moving past them. Something irked me in the back of my mind though. It didn't make much sense why one area would be hounded by members, while another leading to an assumingly as equally populated town would have barely any. I quietly relayed my thoughts to Hilda, but she simply said that "No one would really want to leave somewhere as nice as the Village Bridge to go to Lacunosa." What she said had made sense, but nothing, absolutely nothing had prepared me for what we would soon face.

We hesitantly entered through the gate to Lacunosa, once again thrilled to see that is was abandoned, but for some reason it happened to be even more trashed than the ones back in Opelucid, and those had been in fairly terrible conditions. This gate had a much stronger smell of death and despair. The rug that had been on the floor was dusty, discolored, and tattered. The desk the receptionist would sit at was broken, pieces of debris littered over the once shiny surface. The TV that was originally attached to the wall was on the floor, shards of glass from the screen littered everywhere, and really the entire place was just covered in filth. It was as if a riot ran through the room and caused an earthquake from the footsteps. Admittedly, it was a tad unnerving.

Hilda seemed a little hesitant to move through the ruined gate as we passed through. I couldn't blame her for her actions, it was an uncomfortable sight, but unfortunately we had to press onwards. Lacunosa was just ahead, and I wasn't going to let a few disturbing sights stop me from executing my plan.

I didn't expect what I would see as I walked through that gate.

Hilda and I couldn't help but gasp in near unison as we laid our eyes on the city before us, if you could call it a city in its state. The sight was horrific, and I could barely believe what the two of us were seeing. The small city that had once been Lacunosa was in absolute ruin; I had never even been before, but there was no way it could have possibly been meant to look the way it did. The city was covered in debris from destroyed buildings, random shreds of fabric, and in some spots, it was covered in thick ice. It was October, I was rather doubtful that some random event of weather had caused the formation.

Hilda stood beside me, her expression showing nothing but absolute distress and grief. I couldn't help but feel that my expression was nearly matching hers. What had happened to Lacunosa?

"How did this happen?" Hilda asked, staring with her glistening blue eyes.

I bit my lip, taking in the destroyed city in front of us, "I-I just don't know." I replied quietly. It came out as more of a whisper.

Hilda stepped further into the city with me following not too far behind her. It was terrifying, destroyed buildings laid in waste beside the crumbled remains of what looked to have once been a bridge. Scraps of tattered, discolored cloth flew in the light, chilly breeze as the sun shone menacingly on the gleaming ice, but it was somehow not even melting it. The whole place smelled much like the inside of the gate, purely of death, not unlike the smell of my throne room the other day. Whatever had happened to the town had obviously been catastrophic, and it seemed that the place was deserted. No one was in sight.

We walked a little ways and stopped in front of what looked to be the now destroyed Pokémon Center, the only indication being the shattered sign of oddly colored red at our feet. The glass door was shattered, sharp edges of the glass the only way to know that there even was a glass door, and inside was dark and desolate. Hilda seemed hesitant, but she sucked in a deep breath and entered through the door, only to have her shoulder cut slightly by one of the razor sharp edges.

"Owch, shit." She said, grabbing the top of her shoulder. A small bead of red already began to trickle from the cut.

"Are you okay?" I asked, now concerned upon seeing the blood slide down her bare arm.

Hilda waved her hand in dismissal, "It's okay, I'll bandage it later. I want to check for something first." She fully entered through the door, and I could hear the tiny pieces of glass crunching under her feet. "Are you coming?" she asked, offering her hand to help me inside.

I cringed, not wanting to touch her, the thought of touching someone still refused to set well with me, but I did carefully step through the door and join her side. I was careful to avoid the sharp edges of the glass and I happily came out unscathed, but I was met by the piercing and curious glare Hilda gave me, which looked more dangerous than the sharp glass.

"What, are you too good for me to help you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "This is the second time you've done this."

I shook my head and sighed. "I apologize, I don't fair too well with touch. Believe me, it's not you, it's just…" I trailed off.

"Just… what?" she asked, sounding much more annoyed now.

I shook my head again, "Please try not to worry about it, let's just take care of whatever you wanted to do."

Hilda shrugged and rolled her eyes, walking off and leaving me behind. I quickly followed her, feeling my eyes twitch as the uncomforting sound of glass and debris crunching underneath my shoes made itself evident. Hilda marched over to the Poké Mart's counter and proceeded to jump over it and slide over to the other side, stirring left over dust from the broken walls onto the floor and her jeans. I raised an eyebrow at her actions as she scoped the empty shelves of the store, then continued to bend down and examine the floor. Her eyes lit up as she seemed to notice something on the floor, and she dropped out of my sight. I walked over to the counter and peered over it so I could see what she was doing and she immediately came back up holding a plentiful amount of fallen items in her hands that were covered in dust. She set them down on the counter and returned to the floor to obtain more items, and I began to closer inspect the items she had laid on the counter.

A few dusty ropes sat beside a large amount of bottles that were so covered in debris that they were barely recognizable. I picked one of them up off of the counter and dusted it off with my hand to see that it was a full restore, but it was broken and emptied of its contents. I dusted off a few more though to find that they still had their medicine inside and simply tossed away the broken and emptied potions and restores. Hilda remained busy, gathering and attempting to clean off the various items as she set them on the counter and eventually, I grew tired of trying to clean every item she set before me and went off to do my own exploring.

The escalators that led up to the various bedrooms were covered in beams from the building (it was a wonder the place hadn't fallen to the ground yet), so going up to the second floor was completely out of the question. Instead, I decided to follow in Hilda's steps and I made my way over to the hospitalization area of the Center. I threw myself over the counter, making sure to jump so none of the dust would collect on the bottom of my khakis and stepped down on the other side of the counter. I groaned as I felt the grains of plaster from the walls covering my hands and smacked them against one another. It sounded a bit prissy, but I could barely stand to be unclean, the ways of the royal seem to die hard.

As I continued to hear Hilda busy herself with her items, cleaning the bottles and tossing the empty ones across the room, I started to search behind the counter. There wasn't much in the visible part behind the counter, only a few pens that were littered on the floor and a broken machine used to quickly heal people's pokémon for trainers on the go. I had hoped to maybe find a few medical supplies to help dress Hilda's newly acquired wound and disinfect it, and hopefully be able to help with future wounds we may obtain along the way, but I didn't seem to be having any luck just behind the counter. Straight ahead of me was the closed door leading to the back of the hospital wing, but the window showed nothing but pitch black darkness.

I didn't know what was frightening me, there was likely going to be nothing behind the door besides what I was looking for and many abandoned healing devices, but something about it made me skeptical and hesitant. Perhaps Anthea had showed me one too many movies having to do with haunted hospital wings, and while they were ridiculous, I supposed they still seemed to have left their mark on me.

"Hey Hilda." I called, immediately rearing her attention away from her work. Her blue eyes were the only things shining in the dark room, giving them an eerie look.

"What is it, N?" she asked, placing a hand on her hip.

"Would there by any chance be a flashlight in this bag? I kind of want to investigate this room." I said, pointing to the closed door in front of me.

Her eyes seemed to cloud a little. "Why do you want to do that? It's kind of creepy." She said, visibly shuddering.

I shrugged, "It's always a good idea to explore your surroundings as thoroughly as you can." I said, hoping that would be enough for her. I didn't want to tell her I was doing it to find something for her cut, because something told me she would immediately reject the idea.

"Try looking in one of the front pockets, I think there's a little one in there, but it's pretty bright." She suggested, pointing to my bag which was still facing her. I nodded once and pulled off the blue bag, setting it down on the counter and unzipping the front pocket Hilda had told me to search. I easily found the little flashlight and turned it on, elated to see it was bright like she had said.

"This is great, Hilda. Thanks." I said, zipping the bag back up and placing the bag back on my shoulders. "I'm going to go search the place now." I said, opening up the sliding door. It creaked as I pulled with all my might on the handle, it was once electrically powered after all, and I finally managed to get it open enough to squeeze myself through.

"Hey, wait a second." Hilda said, forcing me to turn my attention to her now pleading eyes. I shined the light in her direction, making sure to angle it to where it wouldn't blind her and looked to her expectantly. She continued, "Be careful in there, okay? I'm sure it's fine and there's nothing to worry about, but you still need to be careful. Call for me if you need help and I'll be there in a second." She said, giving me a small smile.

I nodded once more, "Thanks, I'll be careful." And I entered through the door.

Immediately my flashlight began to glint off of the various metal machines and gurneys that were littered throughout the hallway, left there as if they were simply abandoned in sudden haste. I looked back once at Hilda who had returned to her work on the healing items, her eyes being the only way I could see her, and I took a breath and ventured further down the hall of the wing.

It was unbelievably dark, but it was to be expected considering there were no windows. Rooms on the left and right of the hallway contained beds and cabinets filled with random items that at the time, weren't of very much use to me. I did luckily manage to find a bottle of peroxide in one room, along with a few bags of cotton balls and some gauze in another, meaning I now had the items necessary to treat Hilda's cut, which I could believe had to be festering with all sorts of germs in this unclean place. I decided it was no good to end my search at this point though, and continued to scour a few more of the examination rooms. Some rooms showed to be more disturbing than the last, such as whenever there were questionable splotches of blood or sharp surgical tools scattered upon the floor. Whenever I would see this, I would simply continue to move down the hall to the next room, but the images still managed to haunt me a bit. In the back of my mind I figured that some of the blood was likely just from a severely injured pokémon that was taken in, and considering the severe amount of abandonment in the Center, no one had chosen to clean it, but I didn't know how true that could've been. I definitely felt like I was in a horror film at this point.

I managed to collect a few more helpful items along the way like band-aids and more gauze, which were luckily very clean due to them having been placed in cabinets where the destruction of the place couldn't have touched them. I made my way to the last of the examination rooms in the hallway, noting that there was nothing in the room, and exited out the door. I considered ending my search and going back to Hilda, but on my right was the end of the wing, a door at the end of the hall being the only entrance to anything further down. I couldn't see it in the dark, but after shining my flashlight on it, I could see that it read 'Operation Room'.

I was extremely skeptical about entering this room, knowing that inside could be a wide possibility of things, some possibly frightening, but my curiosity was getting the best of me. I knew that there was likely nothing or no one inside that would attack me, and even if there was Hilda was still well within earshot if I shouted for her, but just the idea of a dark, abandoned pokémon operation room gave me shivers. Biting my lip and raising my head in confidence, I reminded myself that there was no point in being a coward, and began to open one of the dual doors.

I pulled open the door on the right, seeing that I could not see anything at all and immediately reconsidered my actions. I had already started to venture though, and I quickly decided there was now no going back. I found something on the floor that propped open the door so it wouldn't close behind me, and made my way through.

As I had expected at first, all I could see with my flashlight were various amounts of turned off machines, one gurney in the center, and a few large non-operational surgical lights hovering above it. I silently thanked Arceus that there was nothing too out of the ordinary as far as I could see, and began to rummage through the cabinets on the side of the room for items. I actually managed to find a few max potions and full restores, which I happily placed alongside the other items I had managed to find, and started to make my way towards the still opened exit of the room. Something caught my eye though as I made my way to the door, and it wasn't a very reassuring sight.

On the other side of the room was a door, likely some kind of room that held various items necessary for operations, and on the floor at the foot of the door was something I couldn't help but find extremely disturbing. Blood. A large puddle of dried blood.

I knew that it would probably be best to ignore it, pretend it wasn't even there, and return to Hilda without even a second thought, but I couldn't bring myself to do so. The sight worried me, making me extremely curious as to what lay behind the door. With flashlight in hand, I very cautiously walked over to the door, placing my hand on the handle. My grasp on the metal was so feathery that I could barely feel the chill of it, and with my ghostly touch I slowly turned the handle all the way, and the door opened. Carefully I began to open the door, the suspense of what was behind it now slowly killing me, and I opened it fully without even thinking. Satisfied that it was open, I shined my flashlight inside, seeing the metal shelves lined with random items I couldn't identify, and then shined it on the floor.

I dropped the flashlight immediately after.

"Hilda! HILDA!" I screamed, falling to the floor from loss of balance and scooting with my hands and feet to the back of the room. The flashlight continued to shine inside the storage room, giving me full access to see what was inside, and I closed my eyes and covered them with my hands as I felt my backpack hit the wall. I couldn't help but feel myself hyperventilating as I went into a bit of shock.

Merely seconds later, I heard footsteps down the hall that were getting closer until they stopped and I could hear breathing. "N, where are you?" she asked into the room, but she seemed to have found me because I heard someone kneel beside me. "N, are you okay? What happened, what's wrong?" she asked, sounding extremely worried.

I opened my eyes to see her worried gaze over me, her flashlight slightly illuminating the room. "I-I-I'm f-fine." I said, trying to regain my composure. "I j-just saw something that I'd rather not have seen."

Hilda looked at me expectantly and I simply pointed towards the storage room. Hilda turned towards where I was pointing, and she immediately screamed and grabbed at her heart, breathing in heavily as she viewed the sight before us. "What the hell is this? Are we in some kind of horror game?" she yelled, nearly scared out of her wits.

The sight was incredibly terrible. Inside the room was a pile of bodies, human and pokémon alike. All of the humans seemed to be nurses, and the pokémon seemed to be Audinos and other various types of pokémon that may have been in the center at the time of death. They smelled awful and were all hunched over each other, as if they had possibly been hiding in the room to escape whatever catastrophe had laid waste to Lacunosa. Looking at the scene harder, there was little to no debris in the room besides perhaps a few medical items strewn about the floor, so it was rather unlikely that the destruction of the place had been the cause of their demise. No, this was likely a case of mass murder of some extent, but there was no way I was going in to conduct autopsies on the corpses.

I couldn't help but let a tear or two leave my eyes as I viewed the murdered corpses of the pokémon. It was difficult to believe that someone could've been cruel enough to murder not only people who strive to assist pokémon, but the pokémon that needed the assistance. I hadn't seen cruelty so evident since I was young and it merely reminded me of the cruel fates my father was laying upon the ex-trainers' pokémon.

Hilda beside me seemed equally upset, but she was quicker to recompose herself and she tapped on my shoulder, "Come on, N. We need to get out of here, now." I didn't respond, I was still in too much shock at the time. Hilda groaned and grabbed my arm, immediately making me cringe, but I couldn't fight against her grip. She stood up off of the ground, pulling me up with her, and proceeded to drag me out of the room with her, not even bothering to pick up the flashlight I had left on the floor.

I barely even realized that we had left the Pokémon Center and all the horrors inside, but the sun shining in my eyes reminded me rather quickly. I pulled my hat's bill further down my face to hide my eyes from the glaring sun and to somewhat hide my few falling tears from Hilda. She didn't need to see me cry.

Hilda breathed in the fresh air, even though it no longer felt so fresh, and seemed to visibly relax now that we were out of the place. She looked over to me with a sad expression chiseled into her face, clearly shaken by the events that had taken place merely minutes ago.

"N, what happened to this place?" she asked quietly, holding the sides of her arms and rocking back and forth.

"I-I don't know, Hilda." I said hopelessly. Looking at her arms, I noticed that her wound had scabbed over a bit, but was now bleeding a little on the side from all of her sudden movements. "Here, let me fix your cut."

Hilda raised an eyebrow at me as I obtained the peroxide and gauze from my bag, drowned a cotton ball I retrieved in the peroxide, and reached over to place it on her arm. She hesitantly obliged and cringed as the cotton touched her skin, feeling the sting as it began to eradicate the germs festering inside. I then ripped off some of the gauze from the roll and wrapped it around her arm. Normally I would've used a band-aid, but the cut was a bit too large to fully cover with one.

She sighed as I finished wrapping the gauze, tucking the end underneath the rest so it would stay put for the time being. She smirked, "Don't you think it's a little overboard?"

I shrugged, "You can never be too careful."

Hilda nodded and looked back at the entrance of the Center, likely glad that we were out of there and hopefully would never have to go back again. I couldn't help but feel similar elation, especially after seeing the corpses in the back. It was like something out of a movie, something I never wanted to have to see again.

Hilda and I walked around the city a bit longer, trying to forget the sight we had seen earlier and silently praying that we wouldn't see anything remotely similar. Thankfully it was just more of what we had seen before, destroyed buildings and ice, even though that wasn't very reassuring either.

"This just doesn't make any sense." Hilda said, breaking the silence as we continued to move. "A city doesn't just destroy itself, something happened, but what could it have been?"

I scratched the back of my head. "I don't know. Part of me never wants to find out."

Hilda shook her head, "But there has to be an answer somewhere!"

Just then, a piece of cloth wrapped itself around Hilda's ankle as it rode on the breeze, making her jump in fright. As soon as she realized it was just cloth, she relaxed, and picked it up off of her ankle. She examined the aged cloth, the blue color of it faded and dirty, but she squinted her eyes as if noticing something interesting about it.

She walked over to another scrap of cloth that was spinning in the breeze and picked it up, comparing the two. "These are the same color." She said. She went and picked up another piece that was stuck on a now broken clothesline and placed it alongside it. "This one's the same too, they're all the same."

"It's probably just a ripped up shirt or something." I suggested.

Hilda shook her head, "That one over there is the same too." She shot back, pointing to a piece a little ways off from us. "All of them are the same, but why?"

She examined them more closely, trying to make some significance of the color, and her eyes seemed to widen at a small detail. "Look there," she ordered, pointing to the corner of one of the pieces. "It's gold."

Immediately my eyes widened, realizing the cloth's color actually wasn't very aged at all. It was a light blue color, very similar to my emblem's color, to Team Plasma's color.

"Oh Arceus, they didn't…" I said, backing away from Hilda and trailing off. I covered my mouth with my hand, as if holding onto it would support me.

"What, N?" she asked, holding the cloth tighter in her hands.

"Hilda, I don't know for sure, but, I think Team Plasma is responsible for this."

Hilda stared at me with wide eyes as the cloth floated from her hands.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Oh my goodness, this chapter took me forever. I am so sorry for the late update everyone! I've been busy getting prepared for band, band camp is less than a week away now and I've had a few percussion practices that I was require to attend. My apologies.<strong>

**Regardless of that, I hope you liked this chapter. It felt like crappy filler and it took me forever to figure out where I was going with this, but I hope it entertained you nonetheless. There's a lot more to come in the next few chapters. Thanks for all your kind support!**


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